My birthday weekend started with hanging out with Bethany and some of her friends from church. Some background on Bethany: she is a friend and co-worker and lives downtown Philly. Bethany returned from Uganda a few months ago. She works at the Sending Center of World Harvest Mission (WHM) and is also going to Westminster for her counseling degree.

One of the first things Bethany did when she moved to Philly was pierce her nose. She says it was an outward sign that symbolized all the other kinds of changes going on in her life. I resonated with what she said and had been thinking about piercing my nose for a while. When we were downtown during my birthday weekend she asked if I wanted to pierce my nose and I said “sure.”

Now those of you who are shocked that I did this don’t worry I did think about it for a few hours while we were shopping on South Street. It was late in the afternoon that we went to the body piercing store. The place I went was a very clean, sterile place. The procedure was painful but I think it was more uncomfortable to have watering eyes for the minutes following the procedure.

To complete the “Philly Monica” I bought an outfit, including cool shoes, which were outside my typical style. Nothing too wild, just not the “Banana Republic- Ann Taylor Monica”. Since Philly is a new place for me it’s been freeing to think I could change my physical appearance and no one would know the difference. Don’t worry, I’m not going extreme- just experimenting a bit.