With the Good Lord Willing and if the Creeks Don't Rise

I came to Philadelphia for an internship with Anthropologie's E Commerce department. It's only day two, but the trip has been quite eventful so far. I could easily list our challenges and triumphs, but I would rather share the life lessons I have learned along the way.

Lesson 1: When there is a tire tread in the middle of your lane, hit it. The Mazda was a very good car and will be greatly missed. (Note: spinning out might actually be fun when you are in a controlled environment, in someone else's car, and are not twenty minutes into a twenty-two hour drive)

lesson 2: Be sure to get all of your valuables out of your car even when it is already on the tow truck. 

Lesson 3: When something goes awry, be grateful that you have friends and family who will drop everything to come help.

Lesson 4: Don't take your iphone into the stall of a public restroom (Betsy).

Lesson 5: When you have to make up six hours on a trip, you should use the following criteria to find a hotel room: safe-ish, clean-ish, and when you are footing the bill, cheap-ish.

Lesson 6: It's always good to have friends that you can tell a joke to without ever saying a word...a simple whiplash gesture will do.

Lesson 7: When you think you see someone famous in a service plaza in Delaware, approach them. This way you know for sure and have a good story for later. This holds true whether the person is famous or not. For example: 

Scenario 1 is I met Paula Deen's two sons in a service plaza in Delaware! They were nice/jerks/talkative/etc.

Scenario 2 is I met these two guys in a service plaza in Delaware. They were from Texas/Utah/somewhere with white button down shirts and cowboy boots.

Either one makes a better story than: Me and Betsy had been stuck in traffic for three hours and really had to pee. When we were running to the restroom, I saw two guys that may or may not have been Paula Deen's sons.

lesson 8: Be sure to bring plenty of cash for all of the toll booths. *See lesson 2

lesson 9: The GPS has a sense of humor and is only slightly worse at navigating than I am with an atlas. 

lesson 10: Living in a town with a Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Ikea, etc. could make someone very spoiled.

lesson 11: It's NOT Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

And finally,

lesson 12: It's just called a cheesesteak up here.