In Defense of the 8 Day Week

Sunday, at 4:45pm. The case of the Mondays officially settles in. Essentially, Sunday cannot even count as a true weekend day, since half of it is spent not wanting Monday to come, reminding yourself of all the things you can't forget on Monday, and rushing to get weekend errands done before the work week sets in. This cannot be considered a true day of relaxation.

A few months ago, Anna and I had a conversation about how weekends really need to be 3 days- one day for errands, one day for nesting and personal time, and one day for doing something fun. To me, this is a great ratio. But, this would leave a 4 day work week, and real world things wouldn't get done, and then what would the world come to?

So, driving home from a show at 2am last night, completely sober, I came up with a great idea. What about an 8 day week? 5 days of work productivity followed by 3 days of weekend. The only people who CAN'T think this is a great idea are those who follow the Bible literally and think the world was created 4000 years ago and we all descended from Adam and Eve. If that is the case, my following logic will not apply to you.

The 7 day week came from, as most people know, the Book of Genesis in the Bible. Looking around the world, in every country, for some reason, the one Bible piece that has stuck with everyone is the 7 day week. I don;t know about remote villages in other countries, but I think they're on the same day of the week, year, and time zone system as the rest of us. So, the switch to an 8 day week would have to be global. There's no REASON the week has to be 7 days long (don't give me the Bible reason, I already said my logic does apply to followers of literal Bible interpretation), there's no world powerful individual keeping the week at a 7 day number. If there is, that's pretty amazing, but I don't believe there is.

So, let's start a movement! Let's go! Change the world one great (and somewhat lazy) idea at a time.

5 Reasons I Want to Move to Philly

Last weekend, during a stroke of particular wanderlust, Emma, Ashley, and I decided we are on a Philly 2012 conquest. We want some change, but not too much change, and Philly is the perfect place. Want some reasons? You might want to move to Philly too. 

5. Philly has a great Mayor. Mayor Nutter is one of the friendliest, open, caring Mayors I've had the chance to speak to. In my "real world" (not web based) life, I work with Mayors from all around the country with the United States Conference of Mayors. Mayor Nutter is part of the leadership board of our organization, in addition to running one of the largest cities in the United States. Given this, it would be reasonable to suspect that he is crazy busy (which is he) and never has time to talk to people (false). The Mayor is always willing to chat, always says hello, and always appears genuinely interested in the conversation. So wonderful, so refreshing, and he is spearheading the Philadelphia arts movement, helping to make Philly one of the most creative friendly cities in the country. 

4. Free People. I, quite obviously, have a bit of an obsession with Free People. Well, the FP-Urban-Anthro group is headquartered in Philadelphia. This ever expanding and amazing company always has new job openings posted on their website. It really does seem like one of the most fun and interesting places to work. Creativity and a stable paycheck- what more could one ask for?

3. Cost of Living People. Think about this for a minute- after doing some surface research, my cost of living in Philadelphia would be about HALF of what it is in DC (not accounting for the amount of money I would spend at local boutiques, but nevertheless). Want to live in a 4 bedroom, exposed brick, 14 foot ceilinged loft with two of your friends and have one bedroom left over for a closet? Well, in Philly, for $500 a month, you can. I mean, this is amazing. This is incredible. A 2 bedroom in my apartment building is a "steal" at $1800 a month, and I don't even live in DC proper. Crazy madness. 

2. Under 2 Hours from New York. A round trip bus ticket on Bolt will run you anywhere from $2-$25. Spend the day thrifting, wandering, dreaming, listening to music, eating, you name it. And rest your head for a couple hours while someone else deals with traffic. Sounds lovely to me!

1. Local Art and Shops. With an insane amount of colleges and universities, many with an Arts focus, you can get a great higher degree education in just about any field of your dreams (mild pun). Then, because of the low cost of the living, and closely associated low commercial rent, Philly is one of the few major cities where you can REALLY FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS. Wander the streets of Philly and there are plenty of local, funky shops and restaurants where your money helps achieve someone else's dream. What more could you want?

There are other silly things that make Philly great (like, obviously, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), but Philly can get a bad rap. The safety rating might not be as high as, say, a ritzy California gated community, but a lot of it is about being smart. Don't take a nap in a dark alley by yourself at 3am. Don't swing a $500 purse around with the zipper open, wallet about to bounce out. Investigate a neighborhood before you move in. And all will be well. 

Belated, Better BeLate than Never

So, hat's off to the year's laziest blogger!

Happy New Year from 20,000 of your Favorite Phriends

And a happy and busy new year it is! After the bustle of seeing family, killing my lazy body snowboarding, further killing my lazy body by wandering around New York and dancing my brain off, and seeing more family, I took the past week or so to completely recuperate.

I HAVE been very active on etsy, working on a new piece for the site and a couple custom pieces. I'm hoping to have a new sort of style piece up by the end of the weekend, if not the end of the week. Thanks to some new supplies, including a blow torch (yay!), I'm officially able to expand my market- if the laziness doesn't get to me.

I do promise to get back on a more regular schedule, with more interesting posts that people will enjoy reading more than my random ramblings. That's why I like lists- they keep me focused. That's all for now! And if you're bored, hit up my etsy!