Happy Pride month! But before we get deep into the celebrations and festivities, I want to take a look back on my birthday month and check out some of the fun things I did in case anyone needs inspiration for the warm weather ahead! Whether you and your friends want to stay inside with the cool AC, there’s options for a book club or even start watching a show together! But if you’re about the thrill of getting sunburnt then check out some new bars and restaurants below!

Bok Bar

So the month of May is like THE birthday month for my friends and I so there was a lot of celebrating and trying new places! Although the Bok Bar isn’t new and one I’ve attended before, I feel like I really got to enjoy it how it’s meant to be this time around. Catching up with friends and enjoying good drinks. I’m currently sober so I tried their N/A Watermelon Mojito, which first off, I’m so stoked mocktails are coming in a can I felt so cutie with it. It was a little cloudy with expected showers but the high temperature with a cooling breeze made it so beautiful up on Bok’s rooftop. There is plenty of seating to get a beautiful view of Philly’s skyline at anytime of day and the bar is also large enough that it doesn’t get overcrowded and you don’t have to wait long to order! I didn’t eat any of the small dishes they offer, but I know my friend did go back for seconds when it came to their empanadas. But if you ever want to visit Bok and hide away from the hot sun, they have some really cool shops run by local artists on the inside including pottery, plants, clothes, and holistic items. There’s also a bakery, coffee shop, and a quaint little eatery called Miles Table.

Middle Child CLubhouse

So, continuing with birthdays, one of my friends decided to have a birthday dinner at the Middle Child Clubhouse in Fishtown. We have their sandwich shop located in Center City, but it is less “sit-down and be served” type of restaurant. However, I think I much prefer their Clubhouse style! The inside is decorated very Philly style with lots of sports merchandise on the wall but also with a combination of a retro diner. The lighting was the perfect mood lighting, not to dark to not be able to read the menu but just dim enough to feel relaxed and intimate. They have two areas for seating, they have their regular dining area with chairs, tables, and some booths. They also have their very retro bar area that looks into the kitchen. The Clubhouse runs family style which means they take your order all at once and bring everything out one after the other. Not to over crowd the table but enough to have your friends arms continuously reach across for each of the dishes to grab seconds. So we ordered a lot, considering there was eight of us, but stay with me. We ordered latke (we continued to order more through all of dinner), burrata and focaccia, baked french dip, fries, cucumber salad, arugula and fennel salad, some of us split the eggplant manicotti, and others ordered the cheeseburger. Not a single complaint about any dish, so you can’t go wrong here! I feel like there was a lot more but regardless it was plenty to split amongst eight people. At the end of dinner we all got our own dessert, I just ordered a thing of ice cream which came in one of those retro ice cream glass cups. Oh! I also ordered their mocktail seasonal soda which was absolutely fantastic and I’m excited to see more restaurants include fun mocktails for the sober people!

Lombardi Trophy

Of course, it wouldn’t be a completed month without some sort of Eagles event. Since my sister is a season ticket member she gets access to really cool events which include a picture with the Eagles very own Lombardi trophies. Both from our 2018 win and our most current. It was a super quick and small event, but it was really cool to be that close to a piece of local history. It took place at the stadium but it was past the entrance of the Pro Shop that headed into this little area that had a statue of Swoop, Jason Kelce in his mummers outfit, and the logos of our Super Bowl wins front and center. We then took an escalator up to the trophies which were placed in front the Eagles magazine memorabilia wall. The line moved quick and the lady taking pictures with our phones did a really fantastic job and they turned out great!

Movies I’ve watched

So I haven’t watched any new movies that have come out, but while on my trip my friends decided to put on Instant Family. Which is a movie that came out in 2018 and is about a couple that builds and sells homes and, after a conversation with their insecure sister-in-law, they decide to go into foster care to raise children. They end up with three siblings and there is lots of angst, humility, comedy, and happy endings! It was a feel good movie and I honestly don’t watch an awful lot of them but I’m glad I got to watch this one.

Shows I’ve Watched

Okay, I’m going to attempt to be quick as possible because this show is a genuine rabbit hole. This month I watched the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives on Hulu. It all started as an accident, I think. I saw all the trailers for season 2 and was like “oh, ha ha, this looks goofy I’ll have to watch it.” Then while on my birthday trip with my friends, one of them had brought it up and said we should watch it. I legit had to tell everyone to turn off the television since we ran through 3 episodes of season 1 within a span of a couple hours. I knew if we didn’t turn it off sooner, we would be up the rest of the night wrapping up season 2. Let me just say I’m so grateful to not be famous or mormon because I could never comfortably live a life like them. All the fighting and traveling and babies. I would simply crash out. But this is their lively hood so I guess it’s got to be worth it for the check! If you’ve heard of Real Housewives or watched it, it’s pretty similar to that style. The moms are fighting, then they go on vacation to makeup, they then have an even more explosive fight on the trip, and one of them is pregnant. No, now two. Three? If you’re looking for drama, gossip, and just a shitty reality show after a long day at work, I would highly recommend this show!

Books I’ve read

For this month I actually finished up a book that I’ve been reading for the past couple of years. The book is titled When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams. I initially started this book for my poetry class in college and it was one of the few books I really did enjoy! I also got to meet the author who wrote it and she even signed the book with some really nice words. I really like the book because of the style it’s in. It’s not your typical novel broken up into numeric chapters, but rather a collection of poems and prose that have all been organized chronologically. The book was super easy to pick up, read for a bit, and put it down for awhile. And as I said, I’ve been reading it for a couple of years so there really isn’t much of a story where you’ll forget everything and be confused by what you’re reading when you pick it up again. And lastly, it is perfect hand holding size, I would literally stick it in my bag pocket because it was designed so well. So it’s easy to bring and fit anywhere for wherever you’re going!

I’ve also started Onyx Storm which is the third book in the Fourth Wing series. The second book was miserable in the second half, it too me months to actually finish it, but the newest book has rekindled my love for the series!

Thank you so much for reading! Have a wonderful day!