Wrapping Up in the City of Iladelphia

I saw a street cleaner with the "Ph" missing off of "Philadelphia" and I had a major dork moment when I thought that was the funniest thing ever and I wondered why I haven't been calling Philly "Iladelphia" for the last 2 years. *le sigh*

But now you can use it and quote it as my trademark. Merry Christmas.

Where did I see this street sweeper, you ask? Why, while I was finishing up my Philly Iladelphia bucket list, of course!

• Climb the Rocky steps and take some rocking victory photos.
• Visit the "Love" statue and take some dork pictures.
• Go to the Reading Terminal Market one last time.
• Go to Brauhaus Schmitz one last time.

Well, before I get into that, I have to share my trip to Longwood Gardens. It's this place outside of the city and is absolutely GORGEOUS. When I get around to marrying that bazillionaire, I'm renting out that whole place and getting married there. It has beautiful landscaping and flowers from all over the world and fountains with every little detail of pure beauty just everywhere. I was a kid in a fucking candy store running around that place- I took 512 pictures because I wanted every moment to be commemorated forever. We went for broke (literally) on the experience and ate at the schnazzy fine dining restaurant on the grounds.

Now, as a redneck, I walked into the "fine dining" restaurant expected to a) be turned away or b) not be interested in much of the food served and probably not liking what I ordered c) pay out the ass for everything. Well, we walked in and they immediately suggested we sit outside (clearly the undesirable section) which was nice since the weather wasn't unholy hot as Hell and we could look out at the gardens (dem rich folks were missing out in my opinion). They brought out this yellow tomato with a basil leaf on top in a spoon on a plate. I think it was supposed to be a palate cleanser/awakener of some sort but my. God. I'm pretty sure that was just some candid camera shit where they put stuff in front of customers and then film them eating it, not knowing any better. That was rancid. It was like I walked off the path of the conservatory and just ate a handful of foliage or something. Just. Horrible. For the entrees, I actually saw 2 meals I was interested in which were 19 bucks a pop (yikes!) but the meal I really wanted was the special which was, of course, 38 bucks... so, in a way, I was totally thrifty... right?... Probably not but let me have my moment. We both got one of the 2 dishes and they were both pretty good. I loved my friend's dish more and she couldn't stand it but I was happy I was able to clean my plate even with grits being on it. That's right, ma! Look at me go! We also got an appetizer (after the meal, oops) and a dessert each. I didn't think either of them were hot shit but I cleaned all them up (hey, you don't become 170 pounds by leaving food on your plate, nor do you survive in a redneck household by wasting food- especially expensive food). All the ingredients were super fresh and fanciful and I ate it all. Me. Super notoriously picky eater. Ate. It. All. 

Being with food baby, we started to burn off all those tasty calories by walking around the conservatory and fields. I frolicked frequently and loved the kid's area, taking a bazillion pictures like I was some creepy pedophile (note: children were NOT in the photos, it was just in the kid area, by myself, with a camera, super excited about the fountains and flowers). As night fell, their new exhibit of lights across the park started up and we made multiple laps, ensuring that we saw everything. It was so beautiful. I wish I could do the whole experience again, especially if I had a better camera. Just wonderful. I'm so making a trip up there in the winter to frolic with whatever event they have planned. I loved the place.

One of the better pictures I took at night- so patriotic!

Piggy! At the Reading Terminal Market

On Saturday, my friend and I ventured out for her first trip to the Reading Terminal Market. Every time I go there, I walk by this one place that has all these chocolate truffle flavors that look super tasty and I think, "One day, I'll actually buy some." Well, I finally did. And I've only had one two- eating my second right now- but they're pretty epic.

Then we drove down a couple blocks parking next to the Philadelphia College of Fine Arts and took some cool pictures on the sculptures there until I got yelled at for sitting on it (then why make it look like a chair?!) and walked over to Love Park, taking more photos along the way. No super dorky photos were taken right in front of the statue (since the line to do that was unreal) but I got some cute city living photos.



 

We trekked along to the Art Museum, where I took all sorts of pictures of buildings, statues, memorials, etc. I have no idea what most of them were for because my friend wasn't into stopping for copious photo opportunities and learning about some of the culture but the photos look really nice- I'm getting so much better at photography, thanks to scrapbooking.

Which leads me to a slight detour from this past weekend (but still on the bucket list track). I'm thinking for the consulting gig, I'm going to go with scrapbooking. Maybe hospital sex therapy consultant will pan out down the road (especially since I met another networking lead this weekend- even though he doesn't know it *evil laugh*). I came to this conclusion after considering my last group supervision (I know-my LAST!). We discussed some self-care stuff and another intern happened to throw out there how she has this creative side which for years went neglected until she forced herself to do it. I thought about how I could conduct scrapbooking parties like my cousin used to do and long story short (too late), I'm going to go with that as my consulting venue for the time being. I'll do more research in the next few weeks but I'm pretty sure that's the best to do in order to meet my goals and develop some self-care stuff.

Speaking of self-care- I'm totally slacking on Finish my first textbook for my doctorate. I keep rationalizing my lack of reading as self-care but the reality is 90% of the information is review for me (sometimes a review for the 6th time) and while it's exciting to learn the new 10% of information, having to bore through the 90% to get to it is slowly. driving. me. mad. The chapter that has officially taken me over a week to complete is about gender, which as an androgynous person, I know the dog crap out of. Plus, the next couple of chapters is sexuality in childhood/adolescence/adulthood which incorporates development (which I hate, loathe, dislike with the fiery passions of Hell) into sexuality to form a hot-mess-of-statistics-which-carries-on-for-several-pages which makes me want to power through this gender chapter even less.

I feel like the "Final Countdown" should play with this picture

Now that I've totally shot my productivity down, back to this weekend-

We got to the Art Museum/Rocky steps which were, of course, ridiculously busy with tourists and people actually training. I don't know why I didn't expect to see people training there. I think it's because I felt embarrassed by my desire to have a touristy moment, I just assumed no one would do the cliched douchiness as a daily life habit. But, uh, there they were.

There's no good cliche pictures of me at the top of the steps, so they're not here. But we did stand in line to take photos with Rocky himself. Because I love Sylvester Stallone like that... *psh* not.


As we walked back to my car, we made it just in time before it started to downpour. We got into my car and began to go to Brauhaus. Side note- after looking at some of the parking expenses I've paid over the last few months and starting a budget for myself, I'm soooooo not going to miss that when I move back to the suburbs. Throughout the day, I kept wondering if there was anything else I wanted to do in Iladelphia and the only thing I could come up with was "I wouldn't mind having one of those ridiculously strong daiquiris from that place that has a shit-ton of flavors served out of slurpee machines." which I had my first night out on the town and out with my guy friend and I distinctly remember being unable to finish a frozen drink for the first time because it was THAT potent. It was Fat Tuesdays, which come to find out later is well known for being super sketch and very popular for it's daiquiris.

In some cosmic manner, my guy friend randomly suggested we go to Fat Tuesdays after Brauhaus. Sold. So after I enjoyed my 3 raspberry beers, German sausages and potato pancake and berry tart,. we headed over to Fat Tuesdays. I finished 2 whole daiquiris without feeling a thing (oh, have times changed!). From there, it was to the gay bar, Bob & Barbara's for some classic music from a small jazz band (including Let's Stay Together). Good night out.

And that's it for my Iladelphia (sick of that yet?) adventures! Next weekend it's moving back half my stuff which I'm currently glaring at in the corner and then finishing up my internship next week! Chances are, I may not get back on until I'm in another Commonwealth, trapped in the basement but that will begin another fun chapter of excitement...

Beer is good, so we should drink some more!