If You Were Here I'd Be Home Now - A Philly Adventure

Hello readers!

If we're friends on Facebook or you follow me on Instagram, you probably know that David took me on a weekend trip to Philadelphia, and it was the best.

We're kind of a spontaneous couple, so it was weird to have a packed itinerary for an entire day. After arriving late Friday night to my grandma's in Malvern, And early next morning we were off to the Home of the Eagles, sorry, City of Brotherly Love.

Although I'm a proud Pennsylvanian and diehard Eagles fan (obviously), I've only been to the City three times in my life. And it's always been in the Center City region. David has a knack for being adventurous (and romantic), so our first stop was the El to go outside of the Philly I was familiar with and into West Philly.

We went as part of the Love Letter tour, which took the El out to the edges of Philadelphia to view murals painted on the sides of row houses as part of "love letter" to the City (or from lovers to each other). They range from sweet ("meet me on 52nd if only for fifty seconds") to flirtatious ("and it's a definite must-see if you're going to Philly. It's also amazing to see the City, any city really, from its outer rim. As David remarked in his Insta post "Sometimes what makes a city's character is not the center but the neighborhoods outside of it." In this case, it's true. Philadelphia is called "City of Brotherly Love" but you don't really see signs of it in Center City. Taking the El to the outskirts and seeing these murals really put a new meaning to Philadelphia.

After going on a non-touristy tour of the western edge, we did all the touristy things one does in Philly:

Kissed under The Kiss

Explored Reading Market and ate Philly cheese steaks

Got chased by dinosaurs at the Franklin Institute

Posed under every LOVE statue we could find

and tried out ice skating at waterfront (and decided ice skating in the sleet wasn't our thing)

It was an amazing adventure, and I can't wait for our next one, which will be a little closer to home: Washington DC. (More on that soon!)

xx,
Victoria

Striving Towards Positivity (Or, How I'm Learning to Stop Worrying and Love Myself)

Happy 2017, friends!

I was going to close out last year with one of those 'despite a lot of sucky moments, 2016 wasn't that bad' posts, but I was too busy watching Mariah Carey give the last fail of the year.

So here we are, another year down, new resolutions, goals and dreams to follow...but we all know the drill. A few months in (if we're lucky) it all begins to falter. The weight doesn't magically disappear (even after going to the gym almost every day week and eating quinoa and kale religiously), the new novel doesn't get written, and then its June and we're all like 'next year will be different.'

At least, that's how it is for me. And turns out, every year is the same.

I'm kind of sick of it now. I spent a year and a half as a twenty-some dependent of my parents, struggling with an unhealthy weight and stressed out over not finding a job in my field. 2016 was a miracle in that sense. I began interning at a communications firm in NoVa and moved out on my own. But something held me back even as all these great things unfolded: a lack of trust in myself. It held me back through some areas in my job and mostly in my personal life.

I guess I had the mindset that no matter how hard I worked my butt off and tried to succeed as a young professional/individual, I wasn't going to succeed. I've lost a lot for a 24 year old - I couldn't be sure that my new identity wouldn't be lost too. Worst thing: I let myself give into these doubts.

Until Matteo came along.

You all know (probably) that I love cats. Love, love, love them. And I wasn't able to move my ginger rescue with me in June. By the time I was settled in a pet-friendly apartment, Annie was comfortably resigned to the fact that I had moved on and didn't even acknowledge my presence when I drove down to take her back.

But right after that, my friend Sara contacted me, begging me to take her brother's cat's last kitten. Since I'd been getting pictures of him and his litter mates since the day after they were born, it was an easy decision. So I took little Matteo home, and something about him really boosted my mood. Whether it was his cute kitten self or the fact that there was a little creature that depended on me, I wanted to keep going.

So, that's my resolution for 2017. David and I started our 4+ day a week workout right before New Years - for me, it was partly for #bodgoals, partly to push myself to work harder. And I'm picking up where I slacked off as a writer. You'll see a lot more posts from me this year, maybe not every week, but definitely twice a month. And I'm going to be working on nonfiction lit journal submissions and my fantasy saga, so keep an eye for some sneak peeks!

My ultimate goal for this year though is to find positivity and satisfaction in myself. This has been a struggle for me my whole life, but life's too short (and also long) to hate yourself everyday of it. I've written about the challenge to love myself a few times now, but this is the year - nope, day - that I'm going to give up self loathing and strive for love.

Please share your resolutions for the new year in the comments below or on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter. I look forward to hearing from you!

Till next time,
Victoria xx