May 21

nWe're made our flight! The past few days have been fun & filled with good folks and good convos.

I made it into philly wed morning & grabbed some hang time with stephanie before we joined her other Chelsea for a showing of The Fifth Element (I'd never seen in and fortunately, neither had stephanie). I now understand a lot of pop culture references that I should now, notably all the times justin & jondra would threaten to do the opera scene. But let's be real, if I got nothing out of the movie but the "buzz bzzzzz!!" I still came out as a winner. Chelsea suggested a pier mosey & some exploring, which led us to some hammocks and a chucky cheese style net that you could climb on over the water. Stephanie & I went back to her place & crashed, which was wowzers so nice. 

Jumped on a trolley & a train the next morning to meet veronica and her sister caroline & her partner Sebastian for breakfast at a local diner. It was sweet to be on a double date & feel like we would continue doing this well into the future. Ya know, some good mush for you to roll your eyes. We spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for Caroline's graduation and spending time with the Dress crew. Graduation was roasty toasty hot & I 100% sweat through my clothes which was not ideal, but a masters degree is worth sweating for. Also, we proudly had one of the loudest sections which felt great because caroline is well deserving. Got dinner with the rest of her cheering section before making home, where I admittedly tapped out around 830pm. Adulthood is treating me well.

Veronica and I went out to breakfast with Veronica's dad & his partner cathy, at a diner called Daddy Pops. It was exactly what you would hope for from a Philly diner ❤️ after breakfast, we jumped in Caroline's car with Sebastian to meet up with Veronica's mom in Chestnut Hill which is the WORLDS CUTEST. it's filled with cobble stones, thrift shops & earthy co-ops, and holy wow was it cute. We went back to her mom's place till dinner with Veronica's friends Andrew & Kathleen. Most of the night was spent laughing at some of our own stories of unearthing ourselves and realizing that maybeeeeee the reasons our past relationships hadn't worked was by whoops maybe some of us weren't straight whoops again. One of the things for which I am most grateful for in my relationship with veronica is how seamlessly our friendships converge. Makes me think we're onto something & I'd say that something is pretty damn good.

 We parted ways & went to a Laura Marling concert. I've been to about a billion concerts (rough estimate, might be more, dontchya know) and it was honest to God, one of the best I've been too. It was simple, proficient, responsive but all almost entirely music. Save a round of Laura asking each band member to give a fun fact (and we all know I'm a sucker for a a good fun fact), there was very little stage talk. It was all music and it was amazing. She's a master of her craft and knows exactly who she is within it. Ughhh can't stop replaying it in my mind. We scrambled home & finally walked in the door at 130am (woof).

Woke up slowly this morning (also, holla at your girl for doing a final load of laundry AND setting up an automatic payment for one of my bills 👏) and met stephanie for breakfast at a place called Honeys. I'll admit that even on my best days, I don't like biscuits & gravy, but then I tasted Stephanie's and I take it all back. I'm actually drooling a little as I think about it on the plane as I type this. 

After lunch we rushed off to catch a bus to catch another bus on our way to the airport. As some one who has just enough dyslexia and has butchered enough dates and time margins, I get a weeeeee bit anxious about not having my ducks in a row for big things, aka today. Despite my anxiety and the cosmos' occasional chaos, we made it to the airport on time which was a huge relief. Veronica would also like me to tell you that her backpack weighed 5kg less than mine did; she's very proud of this so feel free to do something with it. We had enough spare time to make a few calls and grab dinner before getting on the plane. Unfortunateeeeeeely, for whatever reason, even though I booked our tickets next to each other AND we checked in at the same time, we had to sit separately. And despite some extroverted attempts at making friends, no one would move, so that was a bummer. But it's only a 5.5 hour flight since we have a layover in Iceland. (And a wee salty moment: yours truly is 6ft tall with some gangly legs. Dude in front of me pushed his seat all the way back to sleep, roughly 20 minutes into the flight. If you are a human who likes to recline, feel free but help a human out and ask first! Salty rant over... At least until I see you in person and bring it up again, I have this tendency, whatevs) we're about 2 hours into the flight and though I am optimistic about sleep, I'm not totally hopeful bc historically I can't sleep sitting up. But you & I both know that this is 100% my problem, not yours. Oh well.

Alright, that's all I can think to say. If you're reading this, you're probably a great human, so carry on & have a great day.

Peace & blessings y'all❤️

xx V&C