The Long Journey

I am starting to love Mondays...no really...
After a usually breakneck, whirlwind weekend I get to sit down for a while...
Lately I have been wandering down our hill in the evening after work to my newest favorite location in Lawrenceville, the Stapleton house...where I get to have a lovely evening of catching up, woman to woman and girl to girl discussions about life, love and family, about how we love them and how they drive us nuts...(well, sorry... we do and you do...but we still love you!) and driving around on grocery shopping adventures...it has become a new favorite ritual...
Last week, Kate and I decided to go for an adventure to every girl like us's dreams spilled out on to counters and hangers and bookshelves...Anthropologie...
Lace, flowers, linen, and aprons and books and mugs covered in lace and flowers, distressed furniture that looked like it had been pulled from the attics and streets and painted in antique whites, creams, greens and blues , china with dainty butterflies and bright flowers splashed across....feminine loveliness come to dwell in this urban space....
Lovely, but also tempting...as most of this stuff is to cater to women with a much higher living income than mine...but, I did get to spray beautiful scents on my self, read some lovely random books, and I broke down and got a mug on sale....pretty, no?

I think I have been collecting pretty mugs for a while and just realized I have quite a collection....

I confess I had been having a good day...I had just entered a contest to play Royalty for a day, my hair was behaving, I was wearing one of my favorite sweaters,  and my eyes were sparkling blue for some reason...even though I had had some disappointing news earlier that weekend. But Olympia's smile, and Kate's wit and friendship were a great pick-me-up...
We wandered the store for some time, got some coffee and enjoyed the deceptively warm weather and watched thunderclouds reflect the sunset in grays and dark blues...talked about such things as women do and relaxed...my eyes wandered the new Bakery Square with all of its shiny newness and promise of economic rebirth in this small part of Pittsburgh...it made me excited a little to be there among the young professional crowd...the "grownups" that I feel I should be more a part of sometimes....sometimes...
Kate asked if we could go see the gym she had heard about and maybe schedule some classes to teach...I agreed with some excitement for more adventure...as we climbed the floors in the elevator, she admitted she hated big gyms like this. On one hand I could see why...as the doors opened to reveal a soaring room much like a movie set...shiny, industrial, modern, sleek, with large windows overlooking the park across the street, and leather furniture still shiny, upon which people lounged with newspaper and coffee, and other beautiful people worked out, and ordered their smoothies at the juice bar or laughing and flirting with the men at the front desk...Kate and I stood for a second as it all hit us...
I was WAY out of my element here...and I felt like everyone was looking at the newcomers and I did not belong...it was 6th grade all over again. But then, my competitive stubborn streak kicked into high gear, heck if I was going to be intimidated!...I just lifted my head, smiled and tossed my hair.( got some looks with that one apparently) I was no longer that skinny, bookworm girl (okay still a bookworm, but that is besides the point) from that 6th grade...and I now work out, and drink coffee and work at a big girl job in this big girl city.... (well attempt to anyhow)...I was not an outsider.
We walked up to the front desk asked some questions and soon we were getting a tour of this facility complete with dancing, a ladies only room, and my favorite...a swimming pool! I can very much say I was excited to get our free passes for a couple weeks...I will be trying out this indoor heated pool, and I am dragging Kate back with me...:)



On the way home, we were discussing loves lost and found...and turning a corner we passed a billboard that constantly changes quotes...it said..." we could have loved each other..." I just pointed and Kate agreed that it was weird coincidence...love coincidences....