two states at once...

well, i'm home. oops. 

been home for about two weeks.

i should have blogged sooner, but there have been some recent happenings, 

that have prevented me from doing so...

anyway, 

i. loved. pennsylvania. 

i had so much fun. my group was the best. 

i honestly didn't want to leave them. they made the two weeks bearable/livable. 

here's the play by play....

as you see from the previous post, i made it to philadelphia in one piece.

so i guess we leave off with dinner at the restaurant. 

we met up with the other trainers and headed to the restaurant. 

we sat down with the market partner and went over our expectations and what our 

job would entail for the next two weeks. afterwards, 

we got to enjoy a lovely dinner at firebirds. yum!

 we're special.

left to right: nick, myself, scott, jacob, lauren and diego

we got to work the next day. we had long hours and when we would get off work, we'd be starving.

so, we'd head to some restaurant that was open at 10pm. (ugh. i hate eating this late.)

one night, we headed to olive garden...

don't we look excited.

we didn't get much opportunity to explore the local chadds ford, pa/ wilmington, de area

but one night we did happen to go into west chester, pa for sushi. it was so yummy and west chester was a fun college city and had some young folk there.

so to recap briefly....

long hours. late dinners. great people.

okay, my first day off was that sunday. i debated on going to church. 

i wanted to go to the singles ward in philadelphia, 

but i was forewarned that philly isn't the safest city. 

so, i looked for another ward close by.

the ward started at 2:30, and at this time it was 1:30. i had plenty of time, 

but i wanted to quickly drive by the chapel, to make sure i could find it, 

then once i found it, i'd go grab lunch somewhere.

the closest ward was by the university of delaware. so college town. nice. 

well, i missed the turn for the church, and ended up driving into the front part of u of d housing.

and i found this house....

i. love. it.

why they don't have houses like this on the west coast is terribly disappointing.

 this house is amazing.

to make along story short, i pull into the church parking lot 15 minutes before church starts,

and not a soul or car was in the parking lot. weird, right?

there is always a car in the parking lot. well, not this one.

i got nervous that maybe i was in the wrong spot. 2:15 turns into 2:26 and still nothing.

i walk up to the doors, and yes, i am at the family history center.

seriously? lame. the church needs to update their address. i was bummed.

i ended back in chadds ford and grabbed lunch at panera bread and listened to conference talks.

my own little church. that's okay, right?

so i'll be honest. i was worried the whole time that the group

i was going with would just want to go out and party every night. which, is totally fine,

 but just not really the lifestyle that i choose to live or that i live.

i'd decided ahead of time that i would go out with them a few times,

and then hang back in the room the other nights.

well, lucky me, we only went out once. and it was for a birthday.

a twenty one year old birthday....

let's start there, shall we?

so, we thought that since it was nick's 21st birthday, we should take him out.

we took him to dinner after we got off work. pf changs. he'd never been, so we thought what the heck, let's take him to changs.

driving to changs. lauren, nick (on right) and scott.

don't worry, my flash wasn't working in the car on the ride over,

so jacob got this lovely shot, when the flash was working...

jacob and i

nick, lauren, and myself.

jacob and scott. fortunes

the gang at changs.

afterwards, we went to a local bar called duffers. they played pool,

drank some beers and i of couse did what i do best, danced.

don't worry, i was the dd.

 jaclyn, myself, and lauren

 jacob and lauren

 myself, lauren, jaclyn, and the manager of duffers.

 myself and lauren.

 myself, scott, and lauren.

 the birthday gang....

there was one part of the evening where we decided to take a photo,

i realized i was standing in front of the dart board.

i then noticed that there were some gentlemen playing darts.

i apologized and said i'd move. but then, not really realizing my size,

see i thought i was blocking the dart board just a little,

 i said they could play over me. overly confident, i know.

i was joking around, but they were serious. the guy with the darts

hands me wad of bills and says that if he hits me, i can keep the bills.

obviously, i like my eyes so i wanted to keep them, i kind of backed out.

but they weren't having it and neither was jacob. he stood behind me,

as if a dart was going to actually fly at my face, that he'd "save me."

 jacob talking me into staying....

 i was nervous.

but, look at all those bills....

 ahhh!!!!

 bullseye.

as it turns out, he was a professional dart player. 

and a gypsy. yes!

we picked out some music. finally our songs came one. let's dance!


sadly, this is the night where i took the most photos.
but we only had a few days left. which, duh, consisted of work.
but here are a few photos that i took at the end of our long work day..

we're a lot of fun. as you can see.

on the last day (sunday), lauren and scott had their last days off.
so lauren left to go back to north carolina and scott hung out and packed.
leaving jacob and i as the only trainers that day. we had fun, but we had
a lot of work. mock dines. training new employees. and running errands.
it was a lot.

doug and gretchen came all the way to pennsylvania,
and we drove into nyc that night.
so i had to say my goodbyes from the restaurant.
it was sad. i was sad to leave.
but we got out photo sesh on....

 i really miss these guys.

i guess if i say it at all, jacob is the most hilarious person ever.
so the last picture was kind of a recreation/courtesy laughs from me/being candid.
clearly we had a good time together.

 i was sad to go. i didn't want to say goodbye at all.

but, hopefully we'll all be in the next training group together.
i'd love that. as i'm sure they would also.