Saturday at the Franklin Institute

Tommy and I talked. I think I just needed an evening to process my feelings and anxieties. The truth is, I get a lot of time off at the County. I get 5 personal days, which I lose at the end of the year, I get three weeks vacation where I can only carry over 5 days each year, a bunch of sick time, and comp time. Now that I am typing for Bill, I’ll be earning some comp time.

When I was at my old job, I got four weeks of paid time off. I rarely take time off since I am a single woman with no children. At my old job, since I needed to use time (I could only carry over 5 days there as well), I often helped a single mom; I took off and watched her daughters, for free. I would throw in mental health days. Yes, I have chronic conditions, but even with the doctor’s appointments, I still had tons of time left. Taking some time for mental health days actually helped my health and the need for so many doctor’s appointments.

Tommy surprised me on Thursday evening when he told me he has next Thursday and Friday off, after all. I guess when I’m not in anxiety mode, he’s better able to respond. I took next Thursday and Friday off from the County. They will be vacation days – vacation days for my mental health. Yes, spending time with my love counts as a much needed mental health break. I also took 12 August off; my parents will be on vacation, and I’m going to take a day trip to Brighton Beach, solo. I’ll spend the entire day at the beach, then head into NYC before going home.

Conflicting schedules suck, but I am going to make more time. I have flexible schedules and since I don’t take a lot of time anyway, I can budge a little. Hell, I can even go in early and stay late before I need to take the time. I’m a worker bee and trustworthy. I get stuff done and I’m reliable. I’ll also talk to Simone at the library – I may see if from time to time I can work my four hours on a Saturday and have dinner with Tommy if he doesn’t work Tuesday and Wednesday from time to time. This will be doable until he has a proper job (hopefully).

I know I didn’t need to post this, as this relationship is between Tommy and I; and the way I use my time off is my business. However, I do like to post my thoughts.

With that said, Saturday was 100 degrees. Since I was solo this weekend, I headed into Philly and went to the Franklin Institute to beat the heat.

I hung out at the planetarium. I love the planetarium.

I got hungry at around 1pm. The waitstaff had to get the gluten-free hot dog rolls out of the freezer and it took 45 minutes to reheat them, but they gave me an extra free hot dog and French fries for my wait. I already bought fries and could only eat one hot dog, so after I left the Franklin Institute I gave the freebies to a homeless person. Since kindness was handed to me, I decided to pay it forward.

This show at the Franklin Institute was amazing and the scientist was awesome too. He was playing Persian music before the show that was so beautiful.

This was one of the songs he played:

I took myself out on a date to Banh Mi and Bottles. I had a vermicelli salad and a drink. It felt nice to chat with the waitress and they treated me so kindly since it was hot. I thought of Tommy the whole time, however.

I can’t wait to see him on Thursday and Friday. We agreed that I will do the cooking when we spend two days together. I sure do look forward to that.