Sweet November

The SEPTA strike ended last Monday, which allowed me to more easily get to the American Public Health Association's annual meeting, held at the Philadelphia Convention Center. In short, I spent 2.5 days in center city hotels listening to experts speak about everything from careers in global health to parent-adolescent communication. I also ate at Reading Terminal Market several time, enjoying everything from a latte with no line (take that, Starbucks!) to a pumpkin whoopie pie from the Amish bakers. I also ate at Rangoon, which is actually the first time I've had Burmese food. They had an interesting take on the papaya salad (which I've had from Thai and Laotian cooks), thousand layer bread (like roti canai from the two Malaysian joints I've tried here), and a mindblowingly scrumptious tea leaf salad. I had bubble tea at Ray's Cafe, which has the most insane coffee selection and siphon brewing process. My dining partner got the Jamaican Blue Mountain, which was an experience.

I spent last weekend in New York, traipsing around Brooklyn and lower Manhattan. Well, there was a piano bar on the Upper East Side, but the pianist seemed high as a kite, and I tried to exit before reaching the two-drink minimum. There was a lot of attempted shopping (I made a list of New York-specific stores as a Google Doc, then saved it in my phone), but I really only bought a few things from TopShop. There was a lot of food and drink, especially since bars are open until 4AM. I didn't see either art exhibit I meant to, but there's always next time.

Only a week from now, I will be traveling back home for Thanksgiving.

SEPTA is on strike. And a regional rail train (still operating, but we're without buses, trolleys, and the subway lines) caught fire this morning, causing further delays. It's an exciting time to be getting around Philadelphia.

RVA

The New York Times did a piece on 36 Hours in Richmond and I'm surprised at how many of the places I haven't visited. Times change.

Draft Post Potpourri

As promised:

1/7/09: Someone in the office made the mistake of putting fun-size chocolate bars into the office candy jar. I have eaten almost all of the Butterfingers, half of the Crunch bars, and accidentally ingested a Baby Ruth in my two days back here.

3/7/09: West Philadelphia, born and raised...

6/17/09: Many of my fellow AmeriCorps members are skipping town shortly after our contract ends in late July (and around when their leases run out). One even mentioned having a "Philadelphia Bucket List".

10/05/09: Plan C did not pass, so the continued use of libraries, parks and weekly trash pickup shall continue.

weird Philly memories and moments that make me weepy

Yeah I know, nobody expected that subject line to appear. But on my drive to work today, a radio station played Harry Kalas's announcing of the final outs of last year's winning game and I teared up a little. You can watch it here and here, but I don't know if you'll get the same warm fuzzy feeling.

Secret confession: Whenever I need a mental pick-me-up, I think of the excitement at the election party and then later at our house last year on Election Night. It always makes me smile. At the former, people cheered when a state went to Obama and booed when one went to McCain. It was sponsored by Philadelphia Weekly, and only one district in this city went to McCain, so there you go. But later in the confines of my little rowhouse, Obama won for certain. And when both Virginia and North Carolina turned blue, I cried. BLUE, you guys. Blue. We didn't even go blue for Clinton. My voter registration card is still for VA, and this confirmed that I don't need to change it. For now.

I could also list all of the Philly memories that make me angry (getting sexually harassed on the bus), upset (people hating on my out-of-state car), or generically happy (getting into clubs without paying cover, drunk taxi rides, cookouts at the main AmeriCorps house, meeting awesome new people), but I thought I would start with the sappy.

I've been here for over a year! In less celebratory news, Plan C could take effect and leave me with overdue library books. And fewer streetlights. And no more parks. Plus trash collection would go down to only every other week. Can't wait for the smells of that one.

at school, but not in school

Ah, the joys of being a young staff member at a university: everyone thinks you're either a student or a prodigy-type professor. So I can slum in the library with the undergrads, but I can also eat in the faculty/staff only restaurant. On my way to get my new ID, I was accosted by Comcast workers, offering me a giant Pixy Stick to showcase their "it's kind of a big deal" cable/internet promotion for students. This might have been awesome back when Anchorman came out, but...oh, who am I to turn down free candy. I might have to buy a bottle of soda just to relive the middle school field day memories of pixy stick-induced explosions. Take that, adult responsibility.

Coming soon: draft post potpourri, where I summon up snippets of all the great blog posts I started bu failed to finish in the first year of writing this. Because apparently Blogger saves them for you.