1. Philly took off its winter coat and sashayed itself around on Tuesday and Wednesday and I took full advantage. Tuesday I walked up to the Art Museum to see two of the MLK Keep Marching busts painted by students (I think these two are from CAPA and Overbrook School for the Blind) and what I consider to be one of the best views of the city.
2. I hit the library on the way back. Look at me with a nonfiction book! I started it Tuesday night and I actually love it - it reads like fiction. Sorry for the jacked up photo in which I tried to get Robert Indiana's AMOR as well as the library (the building in the background on the left) AND the books in the shot without standing in the middle of the sidewalk. Fail.
3. I didn't want to stand in the middle of the sidewalk because people forgot sidewalk etiquette over the winter. To review: If you are walking six people abreast on a large sidewalk and a person comes at you, you do not make the single person step on the freaking grass to go around. Some of you fall back. And if you are on a smaller sidewalk pushing two strollers side by side, same thing. One of you fall back into a single file line. Sidewalk hogs! Single file line!
4. Yesterday I walked 20 minutes down to the acupuncturist and 20 minutes back. It was sunny and glorious and I ran into some murals along the way on Pine Street, which are my very favorite things to run into. Both are part of the Mural Arts program. The left is Spring by David Guinn and the right is part of the Famous Franks by David McShane.
5. This week in dog town: Gus is snuggly, Mae is surly, and Bruce Springsteen really wants to drink out of straws.
6. I couldn't get it together to do this so thank you Kim. Please read Kim's post Safe, Loved, and Warm - where do the guns fit in? Also for your consideration, this post by a Parkland father that contains a quiz at the end to see if you are a gun fetishist or sociopath. If you are someone who regularly runs to the Internet to defend guns in the wake of a mass shooting, please, do take the quiz.
7. Action makes me feel better, how about you? Things you can do: Write a letter to students (see below). Support them in any way you can by showing up on March 24 for the March for Our Lives in DC or a city near you (Sister Marches are still populating - this is student led action and a little slower to organize than adult action). If you are an adult, do NOT to take over and shape or direct this action from students but instead follow their lead. Be aware of/supportive of the March 14 National School Walkout organized by EMPOWER Youth, the youth component of the Women's March, that happens on the one month anniversary of Parkland. Be aware of/supportive of the April 20 National School Walkout on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting - many students are wearing orange so that's a good way to show support. On March 14 the plan is for them to walk out for 17 minutes at 10 am and on April 20 the plan is to walk out at 10 am for the remainder of the day. Get involved with your time or your money - check out Everytown and Moms Demand Action (for non-moms too). Don't spend your week defending guns as if they are people when there are actual people involved here and they're children and some of them are dead and others watched or were crawling around on floors thinking they were going to die too. Just don't. If you want to talk to someone sympathetic to protecting guns over kids, call up a Congress person who's taken the NRA's blood money. They're not too hard to find.
8. LOL and yes, true.
10. E-card of the week
Peace out.