Alive and well and living in Philadelphia ... (posted by Lani)

That's me, alright. I have a love-hate thing going with my job right now; I love the job, hate the living in Philadelphia part of it. Not that my roommate Veronica (a/k/a Ronnie) isn't fabulous, she is; but I'm not at home, and I miss Steve and the animals and, well, being at home. I did go home for three days last week which was wonderful, and I'll get to go back home Wednesday or Thursday of this week for another three days, but you know, it's just not enough. The transfer back home to Norfolk can't come too soon for me, or for Steve.

Homesickness aside, Philly is a great city. There are some great museums here (the Museum of National History is having a Darwin and the Galapagos exhibit!) and Ronnie's son, who works for the Seaport Museum, was kind enough to get me a City Pass with tickets to all of them. Downtown is great for shopping, and there are also some fabulous malls in the area. Unfortunately I'm on reserve, which means they can call me and require me to be at the airport ready to fly with only a 2-hour lead time, and yes it happens -- it happened to me last week. Scheduling does try to give you a 24 hour notice when possible though, and it's when you have that nice long lead time that you're actually able to leave your house and enjoy the city. In theory, that is; while Ronnie has gotten 18 and 24 hour lead times, mine so far have all been under 4 hours. This means I do a lot of sitting. And knitting. And crocheting. And even *gasp* TV-watching. CNN, HGTV and the DIY channel are getting a workout here!

Ronnie and I have been in touch with most of our former classmates over the past week, and as we expected we've already lost several people and stand to lose one or two more. We graduated 33, and we're down to 28 still flying now with two more saying they're probably going to leave soon. There are various reasons for this, but the most common seems to be a variation on my theme; people hate living away from home (and often haven't been lucky enough to find a living arrangement that works as well for them as mine does for me). Most of us, though, are toughing it out at least for now. We'll see how that plays out.

I had pictures to post today of our house, my knitting, my crocheting, and so forth, but ... the down side of living in two places ... I'm in Philly, my camera is in Philly, my laptop is in Philly, and my camera cable is in Norfolk. Last week my crocheting was in Philly and my pattern was in Norfolk. I figure when I finally get everything where it needs to be, my transfer will come through. My life in a nutshell.

So are you over the sinus infection? How's life in your neck of the woods?