Sitting on the couch tonight, looking around my apartment for something to jump out at me and inspire a blog post, I accidentally swallowed a cherry pit.  I bought the cherries at the huge Wegmans grocery store in Cherry Hill, NJ (I wonder if there was a time that cherries actually grew in Cherry Hill?).
I […]

Standing in the lobby of my apartment building tonight, I overheard someone say, “I’m really lucky.  I have everything I need.”  The simplicity of this statement, coupled with the totally honest tone of voice in which it was delivered floored me for a moment.  It’s not often that you hear anyone admit that level of […]

I rode my bike down to a friend’s house tonight, to have dinner with a group of women with whom I used to eat lunch with every Tuesday when I worked at Penn. It was part celebration and part send-off as a couple people are either graduating or heading off to new grad school […]

One summer when my mom and I were visiting my grandma Tutu (hawaiian for grandmother) in Philly, I remember my mom taking a utensil out of the drawer in the kitchen and bringing it back to Portland with us. She called it a chopped liver chopper (because that’s what Aunt Doris has used it […]

It’s been a light-posting week over here at Apartment 2024 (as well as over my my Reading Terminal blog).  I have a couple of good reasons for that.  The first is that I spent the last two days hanging out at the Radisson-Plaza Warwick Hotel at the first ever BlogPhiladelphia Unconference.  It was a terrific […]

I have recently found myself awash in organic, free-range eggs. I bought a dozen for myself last week at Reading Terminal, not knowing that my house-sitting gig was also going to come with a bunch. Sherri and Matt, the regular residents of the house, belong to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). In […]

I’ve been riding my bike a lot lately. Two summers ago I sprained my ankle while dismounting (I am very graceful) and that was enough to keep me off for a while. But with gas prices the way they are now, I’ve been turning to my trusty orange bike as an effective and […]

Walking silently, second of six in a single-file line, through the organic farm that separates the retreat center from the main convent, I heard someone holler, “Is that Marisa McClellan I see?”
I looked up to see a very tan person pull the hat off her head and use it to extend the waving arm she’s […]

The latest episode of Fork You is up and running. We made summery alcoholic beverages on my friend Jen’s Wash West roof deck, with a view of the city serving as our backdrop. We should have kept the cameras running, because things got good when we finished recording and started drinking. Scott […]

If you had been walking down the 1700 block of Chestnut Street on Tuesday morning at around 11:30 am, you would have found me sitting on the sidewalk, just next to the Men’s Warehouse, talking with a woman who was sitting by my side.
I had been walking down to the Staples at the corner of […]