Alli

I wake up around 7:30 with my cat curled up next to me. My partner is getting ready to head out for a work event involving shrinky dinks. I stay in bed for a while playing NYT Games that I only have access to because I’m still using a public library card from my previous state. Birds are chirping outside, which I much prefer to CAUTION, BUS IS TURNING. My mom texts me that it’s Ice Cream for Breakfast Day but as much as I love ice cream I am just not feeling it.

Finally out of bed, I set to work “planting” a handmade sassafras tree a friend sent me for Christmas. I have the perfect mug for it! My friend mentioned in her letter that sassafras was used to ward off evil spirits and prevent shipwrecks. I end up doing some more research and find out that Race Street used to be called Sassafras, which sounds way cooler to me.

I tidy the place up a bit.

Around 9:00 I make a cup of tea and do some stretching. Ignore job alert emails since nobody is really posting anything new on the weekend. My grandpa lives a state over and it’s been awhile since we talked, so I give him a call. He’s a prolific wood carver and I ask about what he’s working on -- a small gnome that was inspired by the gnomey folder of a friend. I tell him I’d like to see it when he’s done.

At 11:00 I head to the Book Trader. The door is locked, so I walk around the block and by the time I’m back it’s open. I am drawn inexorably to Dr. Pickles upstairs, who accepts my offering of pets with a stately roll to expose his noble belly. There are a few later volumes of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series on the shelves, but not the first. I am in search of The Gunslinger for a book club; I’ll probably check it out from the library. I spot Sorted Books by Nina Katchadourian, an artist I have admired ever since encountering her Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style. I am definitely buying this.

On my way back home I check the mailbox and there are two postcards from my partner’s parents. I love mail.

I eat a Granny Smith apple while standing at my kitchen counter and think about how an apple is a perfect food to eat standing up.

At 12:30 I get a text from my partner, who is taking the MFL back from work: “there is a poop on the platform.” He gets home without any shrunken dinks for me but I guess that’s okay. We head out for a short run along the river past Penn’s Landing. It’s a sunny day and lots of people are out enjoying it. So are hordes of small insects on the railing by the river that are unfamiliar to me.

I studied art history and it’s always a little extra fun to visit places and artworks I learned about in school. I haven’t visited the Barnes Foundation yet, so today is the day. It’s pretty crowded and I mentally make plans to come back on a slower day to really enjoy it. I buy lots of postcards in the gift shop. I love mail.

We are super hungry and decide to walk to Bar Hygge, where we devour some crab fries. I get a job rejection email during dinner. Did they really need to send it on a Saturday?

Walking and taking the train home is still novel to me. This is the first place I have lived where I don’t need a car and I love it. It’s our first BSL trip and my partner tells me he likes the way the orange cars contrast the El’s blue ones. At 15th, a person on the platform shares that “they’ve got a cage downstairs, and they’ll take your clothes off and throw you inside!” I am learning new things all the time.

The cat is happy when we get home and so am I. I am in bed and asleep before 11:00.

Alli is an underemployed librarian who moved to Philly in fall 2023. She likes watercolor painting, walking around the city, and her orange cat. You can find her on Instagram @alli_along