This week has been one of dinner guests, coffee dates, committee meetings, and haircuts. I have been home each evening for a total of about 1 hour before having to rush back out again only to return at bedtime.

I am completely wiped out…and it’s not over.

Tonight I have a release with work that I’m testing which I hope will not run into the wee hours of the morning (as they are sometimes prone to do). Tomorrow, it’s up early, weigh-in at Weight Watchers, and then hitting the ol’ westbound highway – destination: Lancaster.

I’m looking forward to a day in Lancaster for a few reasons:

1. It’s been far too long since I’ve visited…going on 5 years.
2. It’s Christmastime, so everything should be uber-pretty.
3. I’ll be coming home with chocolate – Wilbur’s (famous for its Buds) & Hershey’s (just plain famous).

As to the “why” behind this visit, my reasons are many…and no, the Amish is not one of them. Contrary to popular belief, Lancaster County is not the only place where the Amish live. If I wanted to see them, I’d just go to the local Amish farmers market which is only a couple of miles from my house. Granted, there aren’t that many buggies running around my area, but that’s probably for the best. Bucks County is pretty, but grossly lacking horse-and-buggy-friendly road systems – not to mention drivers. It’s sad really, but I digress.

Rather, I’m going to Lancaster to kill a few different birds with one blunt object.

One of my former NYC roommates, Kim, is going to be there for a wedding. She’s actually arriving out there today, but with the wedding not being until tomorrow night, she’s got the whole day free to hang. Additionally, one of my childhood friends, Becky, and her family recently returned to the Lancaster area from Virginia. Beck has agreed to come down and meet Kim and me for lunch and some shopping around Lancaster. Then, while Kim is at the wedding, I’m going to take a short road trip with Beck & Co. out to Hershey Park to see the lights. And hey, who can turn down going to a place where the air itself smells of chocolate?

After Hershey and the wedding, Kim will come home with me, and then I’ll throw her on a train back to the city on Sunday after church.

So it’ll be a action-packed weekend which is befitting the preceding week…however, if I’m being honest, I have to admit that I’d really like some crashing time – but I guess that’ll just have to wait until [hopefully] Sunday night.

Here’s hoping I haven’t jinxed myself by saying that.

I’m taking the camera so will hopefully get some good pictures – especially of Hershey and the lights…and maybe I’ll score a shot of a buggy for all you Amish fanatics.

Anyway, I wasn’t able to go to the Victory Parade, but my roommate Alyssa did and of course took pictures so here they are!

GO PHILS!

So, in a fit of boredom and driven by my desire to be in keeping with blogging standards, I hereby present my list of 25 Things About Me.   Ahem.

1. Coffee is my favorite comfort food. I couldn’t imagine a world without it…nor would I want to.
2. I adore roller coasters – I laugh hysterically when riding them and I love to be in the front car.
3. I am completely addicted to travel – I have been to 15 countries on 4 continents.
4. They say you can’t buy love, but my dog has taught me otherwise.
5. My biggest pre-teen crush was a tie between Bill Bixby (from “The Incredible Hulk”) and Shaun Cassidy (from “The Hardy Boys”).
6. I once worked in a chocolate factory.
7. I love Jesus and believe in the power of prayer and the importance of community.
8. My favorite beer is Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA.
9. I rang in the New Millenium in NYC.
10. I have lived in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Alaska, New York City, and England.
11. My favorite TV shows through my life so far have been “Sesame Street”, “The A-Team”, “The Wonder Years”, “Seinfeld”, “Friends, “Frasier”, “Ally McBeal”, “90210″, “Gilmore Girls”, and “LOST”.
12. I have painted every wall in every room of my current home including closets & ceilings.
13. I volunteered with the Red Cross at Ground Zero (The World Trade Center) after the terrorist attack of 9/11 which was one of the most sobering and rewarding experiences of my life.
14. I was 20 years old the first time I visited the Pacific Northwest and have been in love with it ever since.
15. I will not eat raw tomatoes.
16. I have never seen any of “The Godfather” movies.
17. I wrote my first book (called “The Oddness of Andrew”) in 3rd grade. There was a boy in my class named Andrew who was not amused.
18. The first time I saw real mountains in person, I cried.
19. I have had roommates for the majority of my adult life – 14 in all.
20. I love Oreos.
21. I once wanted to be a marine biologist.
22. I collect Starbucks mugs…I have one from every city I’ve visited (assuming I could find a Starbucks).
23. Snow is my favorite form of precipitation – I am thrilled when there’s a blizzard.
24. The biggest earthquake I’ve ever been in was a 6.4
25. I have not had a landline phone since October 2001.

What has brought on these thoughts?  My 23-year-old roommate.  In some ways having her around makes me feel younger…but then in other ways having her around makes me feel incredibly old.  I wouldn’t have necessarily thought that would be the case because she’s only a year younger than my sister Kristin, and yet it seems that there are things that come out in our conversations that make me take a step back and go “wow.”

Just so we’re clear, this isn’t about me feeling “old” and wishing I was younger.  I don’t.  Really.  I love being in my 30′s.  In fact, so far I think my 30′s are waaaaay better than my 20′s.  Even with as much fun as I had in my 20′s (moving to Alaska, living in NYC, traveling around Europe, getting the lowest salary known to man and learning how to live happily on it, etc.) I would never want to go back and repeat my 20′s.  No way.  Not in a million.  You couldn’t pay me.

While my 20′s were fun, they were also full of self-discovery and struggling to find answers to questions about my place in the world.  On the other hand, my 30′s have so far been more about having figured out a lot of that stuff and relaxing into life.  My 30′s have (so far) seen great leaps in my career including a job I really enjoy and a salary which allowed me to purchase a home as well as a puppy.  They have also brought with them the best trips I have taken to date and I have no doubt there are greater things yet to come…

Just to give you a taste, some of my pre-40 goals include:

• Become completely debt-free
• Move to another part of the country (or perhaps another country altogether…I’m flexible)
• Travel to Antarctica, Africa, Australia & New Zealand, the Arctic, China, and Patagonia

It’s crazy to me that I can look at that list and know that there’s nothing unobtainable there.  I could never have imagined being able to say that about a list like this in my 20′s – for most of my 20′s, it was all I could do to pay for food!

I still have my moments (as do we all) where I’m frustrated at being unclear in my purpose or lonely (for instance, I was in tears the other night fearing that I might not find someone to share my life with while I still look good naked).  But at the end of [most] days, I rest secure in knowing that God has a purpose for me whether I can readily recognize it or not.  When I look at how He’s provided for me so far, how can I doubt that He won’t continue to blow my mind with His plans and provisioning for my future?

So of course it was so great to be back with Chena again! There was a lot of excitement and peeing that went on during our reunion (she did the peeing – I was just excited). This was the longest I’ve ever left her for and I missed her.

Apart from my joy in seeing her, I’m really sad to be back home. Not so much because I’d rather be in North Dakota (I’d love to see someone make that sentiment into a bumper sticker…), but because I just don’t want to be HERE. I have said on more than one occasion that I don’t particularly care for living in this part of the country. I have often gone on to say that if I have to live here, then I would at least be in NYC. But alas, I’m not.

Most New Yorkers have a love/hate relationship with the city, however the love usually outweighs the hate. For example, I adored all the people – even though that meant dealing with a few crazies. I loved walking everywhere – even though that sometimes meant walking in the rain or bitter cold. I loved how easy it was to travel from New York – even though that meant lugging my suitcase around with me all day when I was set to depart after work. See what I mean? In any case, the things that could bug me about New York are the things I don’t have to deal with out here in suburbia – but I also miss out on the things I loved, and since the loves outweighed the hates, it’s torturous to me that I not only have to live on the East Coast, but have to live outside of NYC.

But what can be done?

Things being what they are, not much right now. Since my ultimate goal is to move to the Pacific Northwest (preferably Seattle, but maybe Portland), I fail to see the logic in trying to move back into New York at this point (the process of moving in or out of NY is definitely one of my hates). By the same token, I don’t know how far out on the horizon a move to SEA or the like might be and I don’t relish the thought of spending an indefinite amount of time here.

I don’t want to say I feel as though I’m in a rut, but maybe in a way I am… From a work perspective, my career is going great. Yay. But socially, I’m barely functioning.

Another birthday has just flown by and I feel as though I’m in the same position I was a year ago (except that a year ago I had just returned from hiking the Inca Trail and hanging out in the Amazon). My fear is that if the same is true next year and I’m sitting at my desk (again) after the passing of another birthday (again) with nothing having changed (again) or looking as though I’m any closer to being able to get out of here, I may just crack.

Consider yourselves warned.