South Philly home

I'm sitting in the "second living room" eating a bagel alongside my french press. The walls around me are a deep orange.  There's a big black bookcase to my far left, leather couches in front of me, plants everywhere.  The front door is open and I can see the sun bursting in, but more importantly I see the cute little rowhomes on the opposite side of my street that house my friendly neighbors.

The dog is staring out the glass door waiting for the dogs to start passing.  Every morning there's a parade of dog walkers and they all smile at him as they walk past.

To my immediate left is the pretty kitchen.  My roommate's girlfriend is making breakfast.  I see her leg tattoo glancing at me and every once and a while she turns her freckled face around to say something nice and smile.  She just said, "Nicole, you are so cute with your little french press."

The other day I was doing yoga poses on my roommate's bedroom floor and she said to me, "stop that Nicole, you're going to make me think thoughts about you that I don't want to think."  I giggled.  The room was hotboxed and Ricky was on the floor rolling around in her highness.

Yesterday was fun.  I first went to a yoga festival in which hundreds of girls had their yoga-butts high up in the city sunlight.  Then I walked a few blocks and stumbled across a beer fest in which hundreds of hipsters were accidentally spilling IPAs on their half sleeves and red plaid shirts.  Then I went a few blocks even further and ate Maryland Barbeque flavored vegan ice cream while I walked along a heavily gentrified area that would have been off limits to me years ago.

Today I have much on my agenda.  Sangrias with Keith later this morning followed by the Pride Festival.  After that we are having a barbecue with our neighbors in our yard.  The yard is really coming along beautifully.  Two new garden beds filled with vegetable plants, a cute little compost bin with a sign for neighbors, "Compost only please!" And now we have a fire pit.

My life is truly beautiful.  Every little piece is filled with so much light and love.  I needed to move on from Andrew to appreciate every little thing in my life that makes me who I am. I wouldn't say that I lost myself when I was with Andrew, but I definitely stopped appreciating the beauty in life.

Anyway, operation "save for law school" is sucking pretty bad right now.  I accidentally bought a pair of heels yesterday.  And a cute little olive green vegan leather wallet.  And a cute multicolored backpack to assist me on my travels.  I can afford all of these things but my goal is to spend only $60.00 a weekend so that I can save up a pretty decent chunk.  I'll get better, I will.  I already spent less this week than I usually do.  I usually go hog wild.  Keith saw my bra drawer.. "Keith I have enough bras to open up my own Victoria's Secret".. and yet I only wear like two of them.

I'll get better. I need this new mindset, "I am working hard for law school so that I can spoil myself even more in the future."  I'll thank myself later when I'm sitting on a beautiful porch in my own South Philly home one day.