10 Days to Go

Here we are, 10 days out from Christmas.  Many people are rushing around buying last minute gifts or panicking because they haven't started their shopping yet.  Some people are baking up a storm to get all the Christmas Cookies and other nummies all ready.  Me?  I'm coming to you tonight from room 706 at the Hampton Inn Philadelphia Center City-Convention Center.  Today I had the most awesome opportunity.  I got to watch my son graduate from the Art Institute of Philadelphia, earning his Bachelor's degree!!  Then we also got the surprise of not only did he do it with honors, but he also won "Best Portfolio" for his Graphic Design School.  This means that the teachers basically voted him the best Graphic Designer in his class!!!!  Yes, I'm a proud Mommy.  You would be too, if you had a son who beat all sorts of odd, dug himself out of the depths of the cesspool he found himself in on more than one occasion, to graduate WITH HONORS and having the TEACHERS vote him the BEST!!!  Yes, we are all so proud!! 

Stephen, Fall 2011 Best Portfolio!

But it was a long day getting to the hotel where I can relax and write this.  Just as we crossed the PA State Line, the car's engine light goes on the second the cruise control stops working.  Well, after we stopped for gas, the light went out and the cruise started working again.  But that was nothing compared to the traffic we ran in to in the city!!!  All I can say about that is that I think a Xanex is in order for the trip OUT of the city!!

But on the way here, Cassie told me a really neat story she learned in school while studying ancient Greece.  See, there was this guy, who ran really fast from one city to another.  There was a war or something going on, she thinks.  But, this guy ran a really REALLY long way, like 5 miles or something, to tell the city he ran to something that was going on.  Well, after he told them the important thing, he died of a heart attack.  So they named the city Marathon, 'cause thats what the dead guy ran.  Oh, and then she asked if we have to make our beds at the hotel.

Tomorrow we'll be touring the City of Brotherly Love.  I hear there is a real live Christmas Village at Love Park.  Then I'm gonna take Pitman's picture running up the "Rocky Steps" and another one of him next to the Rocky Statue.  Oh, and there is the Liberty Bell, Constitution Hall, and a bunch of other things!!!  I just hope Cassie is as interested in this stuff as she is in the Hobo's on the sidewalk....