Oh it is Penncock! Oh wait no, it's Pennock.

I just got back from a evening adventure with Chem Anna. We do this sort of thing periodically where we will drive around Montgomery and Delaware counties. Her family are all from Havertown so she has a couple of different places that she likes to go when we're out and about. This time we ventured out in a torrential downpour that turned into a inland hurricane. I didn't even realize what the weather was like until I was outside meeting Anna. Thank God I didn't wear one of my usual white shirts, I went with my Where the Wild Things Are one with Max on the front. We started out just driving along Montgomery and only got as far as Suburban Square before the fear of Baby Honda being swept away forced us into the Trader Joe's parking lot. After a dirty look from the lady in SUV next to us we bolted into the store. I got nearly completely drenched and then froze inside the store. I wouldn't walk down any of the refrigerated aisles until I had dried up. It was an excellent first part to our adeventuring. We loaded up on a snack in Baby Honda until the ran let up and then we traveled down Montgomery until we got to Ardmore where Anna decided to take a family tour. We got a bit lost until we hit Havertown and by then we were ready for round two which usually means Wawa. We've been to just about every Wawa on the right side of Township so for once we ventured down the left which mean Route 3 for us. After passing three or four Cuddy's we found a new Wawa and bought bananas. And sandwiches from the Hoagiefest menu. By then we decided that we were full and made our way back to home down City Ave. When we passed school we saw Dr. A. so I texted him and then he called us back and told us to be safe in Upper Darby. Hahaha Dr. A.'s the best!

I haven't posted in awhile and my mom noticed. She even called me and told me that she was worried about me because I haven't written about my recent goings on. Very thoughtful mother I have. Anyways I haven't written because my router died sometime this weekend while I was at work and I didn't know about it until I got home from work last night. I had to borrow a friend's internet to get some schoolwork done and then after work today I stopped at Radio Shack and picked up a nifty N band router that happened to be on sale and also a nice new power strip that expands to fit every single one of my power cords that I have on that particular side of my apartment. I'm glad I purchased it too because it looks like my old one had shorted out in certain places because electronics that I thought had broke awhile ago are now working once I plugged them into my new groovy power strip.

I also haven't posted because I've been away this past week and the internet up in the Great North can be kind of finagley sometimes and I just didn't have it in me to put up a fight while on vacation. But while I was up there I learned about Ashley Whippet. If you are like me and born after the early 80s you're wondering what the hell is an Ashley Whippet? Ashley Whippet was a whippet dog, a small version of a greyhound dog and this particular one was an ace frisbee player that began his career performing for students on the Ohio State University campus as they walked to classes. He really gained his fame as a mascot at Dodger Stadium and making appearances on Johnny Carson. One time the dog even performed the pre-game show for Super Bowl XII. Today there is an agility competition named in honor of Ashley Whippet. Now normally I don't care about frisbee dogs, but Ashley's owner happens to be a friend of my parents back in Vermont and he told me all about his famous Whippet one night at the Matterhorn, which happens to be the best place for sushi in Stowe and the only bar I actually go to when I'm in town. Best place ever, I even purchased one of their awesome shirts, well actually it was given to me because I'm a Purnell and let's face it, it doesn't get much better than that in town.

Well if you're uncomfortable you should take off your pants.

Last night while I was driving home I came across a deer standing in the middle of the road. I've seen a lot of deer in the park an they are a more than common occurrence  in Vermont, but this one was standing in the middle of the road in the commercial park across from where my apartment. I saw it in time to stop and it stood still looking at me for a minute and then became confused, circled about and ran off across a parking lot. Luckily for the deer another car wasn't coming along because the deer easily could have slammed into another car while it turned about getting oriented. A few minutes earlier a fox ran past my car while I was sitting at a red light. It was a total zoo on the streets of Philadelphia last night.

This morning I had my first Wimba meeting for my nonfiction class. I can finally say that I have complete empathy for the graduate students that bitch about it in the office. Wimba is a pain and everything we did easily could have been accomplished over Skype or a conference call. It was kind of fun getting up at 6:30am and having a workshop about a concise literary essay that I had recently written. I have to rework parts of it and then let my writing partner look it over and work on it with me. My professor was very encouraging about having a writing partner since I can't get into see her because of summer hours. Good thing Yonni knows what he's doing. The piece is for my final portfolio, but it's something that I want to polish and consider submitting to a literary magazine such as Brevity once it's finished. I also have to send a copy to my dad since it's about him. I just need Thursday to be over so I can finally commit myself to my writing. I've also opened up my log book again. I had a four year plan to fill it up and I probably would have finished it last year if I had actually written in it on a regular basis. The book was a graduation gift from a close friend and the format is designed after the log books that Ms. Knapp has us keep while in Greece. If she hadn't passed away I think I would have sent it to her after it was filled.

I also found out this morning that Samantha experienced death up close recently. She and I are no stranger to death, she especially during her middle years of high school, but nothing quite like this. I would have thought that of the two of us to see it happen, she would not have been the first. I still have a wholesome milk and cookies Amish attitude of my  sister because of the more sheltered life she led and her extremely boring life choices that she's made up until these past few months. It's funny the places that life takes you and it's curious that only a few days ago I wrote about death and drowning in my journal for class after reading CLE in Brevity.

I'm going to Jersey tomorrow, weather be damned. I also have my history final Thursday night so this may very well be the last post before my Hebrew Friend returns from the Holy Land (unless something super exciting comes up). 

Sink or swim?

You know you've somehow hit a new low in your life when your mother is sending you some random emails about the dangers of stress eating and weight management. Of course it could be just because we're about to go on vacation and she doesn't want to be embarrassed by how I look in a bathing suit or the fact that I'm living paycheck to paycheck and she's figured that I'm not eat properly. I'm going to say that it's a bit of both, my mother is a complex woman like that.

I've been awake now for a little more than 12 hours. Around 11:00am I was already so exhausted from being practice and getting over being sick that I wanted to kill something. I had to settle with trampling some grass on Claver Lawn. About as satisfying as you would think. Practice was good today, except for the whole ralphing thing, but that didn't hit until near the end so overall not a terribly big deal. Plus Brian was concerned and that's always nice. We actually had a scrimmage and practiced lines and tried to get as close to actual gameplay as possible. The team is going to a tournament in Maryland this weekend and they need to know what they're doing before they go. I can't be with them, I have to serve coffee to Mainliners all weekend. The only lame thing about practice was that Therese brought along some kid who ended up being more of a hindrance than a help. I think she wanted someone to help run drills in case we didn't have most of our coaches this morning.

I think Marg wants to go out tonight. I'll go out with her but I'm getting one ginger ale have a little girl chat and then I'm back to the apartment to write a quick paper. I need to get that and some creative writing done for tomorrow. Slowly I'm falling behind and this weekend is my very last chance to get caught up before it's too late. So either expect very little from me this weekend or a lot because I'll be procrastinating as much as possible.