Trippin: Gettin Hitched

Third Stop: Operation Wedding

Next Stop: Back home to Harrisburg

For the final leg of the Road Trip,

my cousin Steve and his beautiful fiance, Steph,

were getting married.

The wedding was held at Saint Anne's

(which coincidentally is where my cousins

on the other side of the family went to grade school).

The ceremony was beautiful

and the reception afterwards was pretty sweet too.

I hadn't seen this side of the family in soooo long.

It was nice to catch up and hear about what everyone was up to.

I couldn't get over how grown up everyone was...

This also happens to be the cousins to which Ellen and I share.

(Even though we aren't technically related at all.)

There was sooo much dancing, including Ellen (crutches and all)!

Below is a video of my youngest cousin Kevin

giving the best man speech.

I love how family comes together to celebrate one another.

p.s.- Hopefully I'll get some better pictures from the ceremony. The two of them are seriously some of the nicest people you will ever meet. I'm so happy for them.

Trippin: Squirrel Hill and Warhol

Second Stop: Squirrel Hill

Next Stop: Steve's Wedding!

I'm a little late on this...

But I'm getting back into the swing of things since moving home...

Went to Pittsburgh to visit Eric and Tyler...

(This is Eric's beautiful house in Squirrel Hill)

CW took us to a lovely little cupcake shop called Dozen.

Then we ate lunch in the hottest restaraunt everrrrr...

But it was delicious and this sandwich only cost me $3...

We walked around Laur's future school for a bit...

Nice... but I'm still partial to good ol' TU...

Chilled in Schenley Park for a little...

Went back to Tyler and Derek's...

Where Tyler made us Buffalo Chicken Lasagna in the crock pot.

Sooooo good.

Caught up with everyone and what our summer plans were...

Eric's teaching design. Tyler's leading orientations. Derek's working at the Zoo. Kelsey's working/hosting her own radio show. CW's interning at XPN. Chrissy's interning at a magazine.

Met up with Cait's relatives.

Got to see the always hilarious Cwisteeen.

(Love this girl. So silly.)

Went to the Warhol museum...

Which was absolutely ridiculous!

New found respect for that man...

Silver Clouds piece...

Cheesin sooo hard!!!

Passed out as soon as i got in the house after heat exhaustion and the dance party with Juan, CW, Chrissy, and Eric.

Big Juan DJ-ed...

Then made delicious Spaghetti for lunch with CW and Chrissy before saying goodbye and heading off to the 3rd leg in my Pbgh Road Trip.

Trippin: 717 style...

Let the road trip begin!!!

First stop: the 717!!!

Next Stop: Pittsburgh to visit Eric and Tyler!!!

4th of July

This is long overdue...

But here's how I spent my 4th of July in Philly.

FREE Matt and Kim concert in Northern Liberties.

Seriously, soo sooo soooo good.

CW whipped out the candy cigarettes, because let's face it...

none of us actually want to smoke real cigarettes.

Jr. came to visit too!!!

I was so glad she came to visit and brought Matt and Truc!

Patriotic jello molds with Stacy and CW...

The all blue brigade...

Awkward elevator rides with these three lovely ladies...

Visits from Tracy...

Fritatas and Watermelon...

Breakfast by Merchadz...

Sooo many eggs...

These lovely four...

Strolls through Center City...

Celebration on the Parkway...

With free drinks, hats, and food!

And to cap it all off...

A dip in the Love Park fountain before Chrissy and I passed out in my apartment and missed the fireworks.

(Luckily we saw some the next day as Scott and Tim's neighbors illegally set some off in the empty lot down the street!)

U.S.of.A.

Almost everyone is here!!!

We are having a reunited in Philadelphia weekend

to ring in the Fourth of July!

Complete with gregor tag, miniature tanks,

tours of old city, $5 all you can eat ice cream,

and fireworks!

There Are Giants in the Sky...

There are great big terrible giants in the sky...

I can't believe I forgot to upload my drawing final from two semesters ago... Anyways the assignment was to create a life size or larger black and white self portrait. That's it...

So naturally I chose to depict myself in one of my favorite pastimes: Sleeping.

You can't tell from the pictures but the drawing

is actually 6 feet wide and 7 feet tall.

Way smaller than my last drawing final, but still pretty huge.

I don't know what it is, but there's something about working on such a large scale that really excites me. I love it.

These photos were taken by the very wonderful and talented

Jenni Kowal.

Hoagie Heritage Day...

So yesterday was one of those "only in Philadelphia" days...

Played tennis with Scott.

Had a lot of fun.

Realized how much I miss tennis.

And how out of shape I am.

Then we met up with Tim and Chrissy.

Biked to the PMA for what else...

Wawa Free Hoagie Day!

They gave out over 1300 hoagies that stretched over a mile long to anyone that was willing to wait in line. Being the frugal college students that we are we had no problem passing the time. Especially since we were able to get seconds... There was Wawa Idol, (which was basically Wawa employees competing in an American Idol contest), a Wawa cover band complete with a menagerie of Wawa jingles, a Rocky Balboa lookalike contest, and speech from Mayor Nutter.

To top it all off we waited as night approached and sat on the famous PMA steps and watched Rocky on a giant screen. There's something pretty surreal about seeing the place where you are sitting being displayed on the screen with Sylvester Stalone running on top of it.

Just an ordinary day in the city of brotherly love...