The Oldest City.

I just have to say it.

I am genuinely in love with Philadelphia. Like if I could marry this city, I would do it. (Ew? Too much?)

There are a billion and  half reasons that I am constantly pinching myself while I'm here. The innumerable cultures? Yes. The fact that I can walk straight down a single road for about 25 minutes and be in the heart of a massive metropolitan city? Obviously. The fact that each neighborhood is like it's own little world? Yeah. The bagels? YES. The horrifyingly fat rats with fur also known as city squirrels? No. Not those. We can leave them out.....forever. Please.

I know it's lame, but I count myself so fortunate to be as  much a part of what makes Philly so....well, Philly as everyone and everything else that make up its radical city vibe & geo footprint.

My blog pal Alaina & I spent Friday afternoon maxin' in Old City, also known as the most charming of all the neighborhoods in Philadelphia. If you don't believe me, just google image it. There is something that feels different in Old City - maybe its the fact that the buildings sit a little lower on the skyline and that it contains some of the most historical bits of Philly, the cobblestone roads, or even the little bit of greenery that you can't quite catch in other city areas. All of it gives off this charm that is genuinely soul-refreshing.

Basically we had a blasty-blast having a 'blog' day together, including some thrifting finds and one of the hands down BEST iced teas I've ever had in my life ever ever ever, EVER.

If, perhaps, you are ever in the Old City area, please PLEASE stop in at Old City Coffee, which is at 221 Church Street. It's first of all adorable and second of all so tasty. I wish I had gotten a sweet treat but I was stuffed, so I'll be going back. What I did get was an herbal tea that blew my brain to mars and back. I haven't been drinking as much coffee as I used to lately, but that's another story in itself. So even if you aren't a coffee person, there's still a reason to go by.

I'm an idiot and forgot to grab a picture of the front, so here's one via the website (which also has the menu, so go!):

I know. I'm dying. Those cobblestone streets get me every time. 

 

<-- LOOK at her.
One of my favorite ladies.


  Can you tell I'm happy with it? I so was.        --->

One of the best bits of Old City is the treasure trove of little boutiques, vintage shops, and general neato-ness.We stopped in for a hot second into one that sold the coolest little bits and pieces, including sage bunches for cleansing  your living space of negative energies. I've been meaning to sage for a while, so I might have to stop back in.

I was most obsessed with old hotel key ring number tags. I'm beating myself up for not buying one of them. They were SO RAD. I'm a sucker for things with extra historical value and charm and these brass rings were so old school and wicked I was obsessed. I didn't even get a picture because I'm lame, but I did snap a shot of the old timey drinking glasses with cartoon prints. I know these aren't really that old at all, SORRY MOM, I know you had them as a kid.... and you're only 29. ;)

We walked from Old City proper over to South Street, another happenin' hipster bit of Philly so I could finally, finally, finally check out Philly Aids Thrift for the first time. It was, as expected, totes cool. I couldn't believe how much stuff was there. I ended up with a few itty bitty purchases, including a ten cent post card - literally obsessed. I'm gonna put it on Instagram a little bit after I post this I think, so do check that out. 

On the way there we took these, which just make me smile inside and out. 

And I could go on and on about Philly Aids Thrift, but I think this picture of Alaina sums it up:

I'm horrified. 

The point is, days like Friday remind me just exactly how much I am truly obsessed with the city I get to call my home away from home. And it's really my home now - it feels like my city; I leave a little piece of myself there every time I go. I know that doesn't happen to everyone or everywhere. I know that I am lucky, so brilliantly lucky, and I won't ever stop exploring as long as I have the absolute privilege of doing it. 

Many loves to Alaina for being an amazing blog pal and even better friend!

All the best, 

Paige 

Put Down Your F***ing Phones.

We all know I am a massive fan of live music. I also love when things are free. Obviously, I can't turn down a chance to see anyone if it's free. Saturday was the final Radio 104.5 Summer Block Party. I'd never been to one, and we happened to score some of the tickets that were released, so my pal Steph & I went for the day. 

It was completely outdoors. It poured for a greater majority of the afternoon. We went to the wrong pier (classic...). But it was a really solid day in the end! I'm glad we went, at least. All in all, five groups played: 

Brick & Mortar - Wolf Gang - Sir Sly - Vance Joy - Grouplove 

Admittedly, I only knew a single Sir Sly song, a few Vance Joy tunes, and a good handful of Grouplove jams. Even better! New music to be discovered! 

In fact, I ended up absolutely jamming to Wolf Gang during their set. Every single tune was catchy and they reminded me why I love live alternative music so much. I'm dropping a video in at the very end of the post of my favorite song from their set, the title track of their EP called Black River. If you're a fan of The 1975 meets Walk the Moon, these are the dudes you need to listen to. Hell, just listen to it anyway. It's synth driven and catchy and brilliant. They were also based out of London, so essentially I was in love as soon as they stepped on stage. Bias? Maybe. Impressed? Definitely. 

Right, but the thing is: I forgot how day lost festival type shows operated until I was at one. And there are just....things. That happen. That shouldn't happen.

the DID I REALLY JUST SEE THAT? list:

• The boy in front of us when we were actually in the crowd portion who whipped out his Nalgene bottle and peed in it. I guess that grossed him out as much as it did us, because he then dumped the pee onto the ground in front of us. We left. I had white shoes on, people! No thanks. 
• People. walking. around. barefoot. I suppose that's not so out of the ordinary, but it had just poured, the ground was a mix of sand and concrete... let's just say I wouldn't have done it. But I saw it!
• Moms and Dad's enjoying the show more than their kids. I LOVED this, absolutely loved this. You go, hip alternative parents. Don't ever stop being cool. 
• People in really, really expensive shoes. Maybe this is just me but I seeing people in their fairly pricey kicks absolutely sloshing through standing water made my heart ache a little. But you can't stop life from happening so I'm just glad they still had a good time regardless. Still. Dollar signs. My poor, cheap heart. 
• 13 dollar domestic beers. 
• let me repeat that. 
• 13
• dollars
• for a 
• domestic
• beer
• HUH?

But please don't let my list confuse you; I had an absolute blast. Music is the force that drives all humans together. I believe that completely. Saturday was no exception. During Grouplove's set, they said something that I just love between songs.

"Make art with your hands, however you can, and share it with others. And put down your f***king phones."

Happy Monday!

(WOLF GANG SMASHIN IT, JUST LOOK AT THOSE BABES.) 

Post downpour? Yes. Look at those puddles. 

Look at THESE puddles. 

The big finale, Grouplove absolutely chillin' right through their set.

Music Monday: Black River, Wolf Gang 

Ello' GOVNA! [London, here I come]

My roommate & I went out for a rad celebration dinner last night to Maggiano's, as you can see. It's not my family's Italian food, but it's really close. Basically, I left feeling fat and happy.

The reason we were celebrating is because within the last two weeks, both of us have gotten conformation of what is potentially going to be one of the coolest things either of us have ever done. This winter, we're moving out of our apartment early. Next semester, neither Tess nor I will be returning to Temple's main campus. 

            WE'RE GOING TO LONDON.

It has been months of planning, paperwork, and positive energy, but it's finally official. To be honest, I am hesitant to even mention it now because it won't truly be official until my butt is sitting on a plane, but everything is set. We'll both be studying through the School of Media and Communications semester program, while both living and interning in the city. (IS THIS REAL LIFE). Although the program dates are finalized, we will be gone roughly four months, from January to May.

It's so funny to think that at the beginning of last year, this idea seemed so far off. Neither Tess nor I expected it to work out, but we went ahead and bought a big whiteboard shaped like a red phone booth anyway. And on it, we wrote all of the steps we needed to take, hurdles we needed to clear, and exciting prospects we faced if we actually did make it there in the end. That whiteboard sat in our room for a full year, and slowly, we ended up checking off all of the boxes on it.

I'm so, so, so, so excited. It hasn't sunk in and it doesn't feel real, but I'm thrilled just thinking about it. So family & pals, I wanted to let you know! Especially because much of my life in the next few months will be slowly preparing to go - so now I can officially share those steps with you on the blog too.

Finally, and most importantly, I have to completely step back from all of this and say the worlds most massive, lovefilled thank you both my mom and dad, and my grandma and grandpa. All four of them listened to my pipedream idea, humored my giddiness, and most importantly offered me support to do this. I know it isn't easy, or cheap, or exciting that I'm going to be away. But they have shown me so much love and support and for that I am so thankful. I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Anyway, all I know is, I'm looking forward to some real fish and chips sometime soon.

All the best,

British Accent-ed Paige 

low quality love.

Hey, hello, hi. It's already Friday. .....what? I know. 

I have a really, really, major, huge, giant, big announcement to make tomorrow. I was going to do this elsewhere, but now I have blog. And it's mine, and I want to make the announcement on here. What a concept. At any rate, tomorrow I'll be writing all about this big exciting also terrifying life change that's about to happen. 

In the meantime, I just really wanted to share with you a very small recap of this week, mostly in the form of some low qual iPhone shots. They aren't wild, but they do make me happy, and they remind me of some of the smallest moments of joy I found in the last few days.  Take a peek, and I'll see you back here tomorrow. 

Big love. See you tomorrow. 

All the best, 

Paige. 

On Liberation (And Hair Dye)

This weekend I cut off a giant chunk of my massive head of hair. 

And I'm feeling pretty liberated.

It's funny how innocuous hair is - it's always there, its dead, but its also serious business. Time and money and resources and jobs are all based around the care and keeping of it. It matters (which is weird). Maybe that's why changing it seems like such a big deal. And it is, isn't it? A big deal?

"You cut your hair!" "You look different, did you get a haircut?" 

Everyone. Always. Notices. 

So naturally, in true form, I didn't care about my hair for at least two years. I just let it grow, I didn't tame it, I didn't even get it trimmed. Someone told me my hair reminded them of a body suit, because it got so long it overtook my face. 

Point is, I got fed up. And I hacked it off. And I love it. 

And that wasn't enough, not even close, so I took my sister to Sally's and bought all of the needed supplies to effectively transform my whole self by tossing some turquoise ends onto freshly dyed black hair. I would be crazy not to thank my sister, by the way, for sitting through a five hour hair dying extravaganza, which she absolutely blew out of the water. I haven't ever been happier and I owe that in large parts to her styling prowess and, more importantly, confidence boosting support. 

The end result is fabulous. It's just different. I might even look cooler than I really am now, which is weird, but whatever. It's my personality in a nutshell. And it is radically new to me. In fact, I couldn't understand why I hadn't cut my hair sooner. 

I think it's so wild that change is liberating. It always is. Because we're taking our decision-making skills and putting them to use, and we're doing what WE WANT. I wanted blue hair, so I got it. You want a boss pair of boots to stomp out the haters, so you get them. Your mom wants to make a pie with someone else's recipe other than your grandmothers for once, so she does. Think about that feeling of successfully doing something new- it's the bomb. You know its the bomb. 

But we don't always let ourselves do it. I almost didn't take the advice of my sister or my room mate to dye my mop. You might not buy those boots because they're not your "style". Your mom might be too afraid to make your grandma sad if she realizes the pie isn't quite how it usually is. All of these little hindrances are what hold us back from making strides. 

I'm no radical life changing lady, and some things really don't need to be revamped. But that feeling of being free from whatever was keeping you from trying something new is too good to pass up sometimes. And believe it or not, it carries over. It impacts the way you carry on with your life. It makes you realize that little changes make big waves. Even haircuts, if you can believe it. 

I guess it takes some hair dye and growing a pair for some of us to realize it. 

All the best, 

Paige. 

Another day, another blog.

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Back at it again, I guess!

By way of introduction...hello there, friend! My name is Paige, and this is my new internet home.

I am no stranger to the blogging world - not even close. If you know me personally, you probably know that I blog for my job on campus. Lately I've given a lot of thought to what makes me happy, and what I want out of life. One of the things I really wanted was a space to put out a genuine extension of myself. I chewed on the idea of a genuinely personal blog for quite a while, and it kept finding a way to reappear on my radar.

I've put in hours and hours of thought to what I wanted this space to be. I pestered at least 45 different people to let me brainblast with them, shot down thousands of name ideas, and changed this damn blog layout more times than I can count (thank you, coding skills, without you I would be nothing). Ultimately, what you see is the end result of a lot of effort and dedication to this little home of mine here.

This Satellite Life is my way of pulling together every little piece of the world that I so fortunately get to orbit in this beautiful, crazy lifetime. It is my heart and my mind in one place, with a whole lot of humor and real life emotion and truth. 

If no one reads this, I'm down with that. First and foremost, this blog is for myself. I often have so much to express, and I get around to it. Because life is happening, so so quickly, And I forget to let myself have a second.  This is my way of forcing myself to make my own thoughts a priority in my life.

But, if you do stick around, I definitely won't mind that either.

I can't promise you diamond rings, but I can promise that you'll be seeing plenty of the following:

Thrifting/vintage finds, fashion-y things (me....talking about fashion................ what.), sewing stuff, good old fashioned story telling, ranty goodness, and most definitely more than enough information about all of the food I cannot stop myself from eating.

I'm in this one to win this one, and I'm itching to get started. I love you if you check up on me here every once in a while; I love you if you don't.

Tomorrow it begins! I wrote a post about how I chopped of my hair and dyed it teal, and also about liberation.


Thanks for being rad, rad, people. Live a purposeful life.

All the best,

Paige.