Caroline B

i woke up almost on time, been having to dig deep lately by labeling my 6:45AM alarm “you have to wash your hair” and kind of love the glamour of NEEDING to blow out my hair because it is finally cold enough in the morning for it to matter, it is a good hair day

normal commute to campus, arrive at about 8:20AM only ~15 minutes later than I told my boss I would be 

breakfast is half of the old nelson turkey hoagie i accidentally bought two of yesterday, i swear the website glitched but it was still satisfying a day later, if a bit soggy 

(photo is from 10/24 but imagine the same, just a little older and colder) turkey club - white bread, turkey, bacon, lettuce, onion, mayo, cherry peppers, pickles, cukes, S&P, and “seed pepper”

a bit of a stressful morning, still playing catchup after being out three days for a conference in minneapolis 

spend the afternoon working the “zero waste station” at the CANIE conference for PA study abroad professionals 

this involved standing by the trash station taking used lunch plates — scraping the food waste from the reusable Re:dish™️ plates into a compost bin, and sorting out any trash and recycling etc kind of a nice break from emailing except breakfast yogurt gets pungent around 12:30pm 

not a particularly engaging keynote and panel

get extremely annoyed and act out when I find out abt barack and bruce coming to temple monday, it’s just an annoying inconvenience, happening during an event i’m running and im just over barack obama and watching television in pennsylvania, being a philadelphian during election season

clocked about 6,000 steps and 12 flights of stairs walking around the Howard Gittis Student Center from my office to the conference center in HGSC South through the food court, it’s a beautiful day outside (not that I have left the building) and the light through the massive glass windows is a bit striking

eat 2/3 of the second ON hoagie for lunch

experiencing vicious loose stool, have to step away from waste station and panic abt potential e.coli contamination re: lettuce, boars head meat while i scroll and vape in the BR but get it together enough to keep continue working

I’m supposed to leave at 3PM to go to the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania for the 16th Annual CHOP Pediatric Global Health Conference “Rising in the Face of Climate Change” where I am speaking on a panel tomorrow, a presentation “Meds, eds and climate justice: the role of the university health systems in addressing climate change and mitigating its impacts” that I am not prepared for and I don’t want to network with pediatricians and Penn people, debate all day then finally decide i’m not going, feel kind of guilty, guiltier still that I told my boss I was and leave at 3:15 anyway after printing my slides to add notes and practice tonight instead of doing anything interesting 

call bf liam who is also on his way home from temple after class and gym 

we’re staying in but I decide to buy 18 beers, a twelve pack of Modelo and this Victory paloma grapefruit thing I like, it’s $40 and that surprised me, it’s also kind of heavy and I have to stop and readjust several times over the course of my 13 min walk

enjoyed my little rest at manton green, hit my vape and restart my journey, liam catches up to me and takes the heavier pack of beer :)

get home and lay for like one second and then liam and i have an unexpected but powerful urge to clean and organize the apartment, including dusting the ceiling fan in the kitchen (truly vile like I do not understand how the grease particles from the stovetop travel and linger) vacuuming everything, sorting through a random bin of shit, 2.5 months after he moved in we are finally pretty settled in and I have a moment of loving my living room with the window open gorg sunset cool breeze candle burning drinking a gd cold beer 

read through presentation several times and make some notes, freestyle improv and time myself and its the right length and so I decide I don’t need to do any more tonight 

facetime besties gabe and danny in NY (they are not together but both home in BK and the UWS respectively) and it is very nice to talk to them and i look good and take a lot of screenshots of myself

liam cooks chicken legs, cabbage, mustard greens, long hots and sweet potatoes with a really tasty tahini miso dressing 

i do the dishes (egalitarian partnership)

watch the WS game w liam (a lifelong yankees fan) from montclair NJ so he comes by it honestly and I know I love him because i have no desire to be a hater and i want it for him and im kind of horny for all their like 6’5” beef cakes especially verdugo randomly 

regardless, only make it to the 8th inning because early wake up, do full night skin routine and fall asleep quickly 

Caroline is a car-less yuppie with no discernible hobbies living, loving, laughing, yelling and watching Bravo in South Philadelphia. You can find her @carol_burk on ig and @carolburk_ on X if you want!