Back in DC

After a slightly scary start to the day (my alarm didn't go off, and I woke up at 5:10, when the cab was coming at 5:30), I got to DC at about 8am and to my hotel by 8:30. I sat on a bench on the mall knitting until Erikka and Brian got in. We went to the US Botanic Garden (which was pretty small, but had a nice conservatory), then to the Hirshhorn museum (which I had been to in June, but they had moved stuff around significantly), had lunch and the Capitol City Brewing Co, and then we went to DuPont Circle to go to a private art museum called the Phillips Collection. It was very impressive and in an old cool house. After the art museum, we just walked around the area for awhile, including Embassy Row - a street where most of the embassies are. So that was interesting. We had dinner at a great pizza place, and then they headed home and I went to my hotel. So it was a long day, but it was nice. I was glad Erikka and Brian were here - otherwise I probably just would have sat at the hotel all day!
TWO MORE DAYS!!!!


Me and Erikka at the Botanic Garden, Capitol building behind us



lion sculpture and Capitol building

Farewell, NYC!

It's finally time to leave! I guess the 10 weeks went kind of fast, but I still can't wait to go home! My flight leaves at 7am tomorrow, then I'm in DC from Sunday-Tuesday. I am kind of annoyed to go to DC since I just want to go home, but at least I will get to see Erikka and Brian while I'm there. They will come to DC tomorrow and spend the day with me, which will make being there much more worth it!
Last night I went to a Science Cabaret at the NY aquarium, which is at Coney Island. The cabaret was more or less stupid (the only entertaining thing was that Danica McKellar...Winnie from Wonder Years...was there promoting her new book 'Kiss My Math'), but I was glad to see Coney Island once. It was dark so I couldn't see the beach really, but the boardwalk was interesting. I had a famous Nathan's hot dog there, and saw the Astroland amusement park. While I stood on the subway platform waiting for the train, I also caught the fireworks (which they set off every Friday in the summer I think). So it was interesting.



Today I slept in, then went to Central Park for a little bit. It was hard to relax (I had a book and my knitting)- all I could think about was packing. So I came back to the apartment and got things mostly packed. I'm just praying my check bag isn't over 50 lbs!!! So everything is mostly ready to go; I just need to finagle my pajamas and a few more pairs of shoes into my suitcase in the morning. I just can't wait!!! Tonight I'm getting dinner with Wendy. I am grateful for something to do - otherwise the night would seem like an eternity until I get to leave!

I would now like to share with you a couple of top ten lists:

Top ten things I won't miss about NYC:
10. How expensive everything is.
9. The subway! In particular, the smell of very sweaty or dirty people in an enclosed space and the men that sit in the middle of the seat with their legs wide open taking up two seats!
8. All the people everywhere....
7. and yet being alone all the time.
6. This apartment - I can't wait to go home to my clean kitchen without cockroaches and with a refrigerator that doesn't have leftovers that have been in it all summer that make everything in it smell weird (I guess I hope my fridge at home isn't like that).
5. Walking everywhere and always being sweaty before I get somewhere.
4. My $800/month sublet. I can't believe people pay so much to live here. Soooo not worth it.
3. Times Square. I hate Times Square.
2. The stupid alcohol rules. It was really annoying to not be able to buy wine at the grocery store.
1. All the slow-walking stupid people that walk in the middle of the damn sidewalk and/or stop in front of you in a big crowd and/or walk straight towards you without attempting to move out of the way.

Top then things I will miss about NYC
10. Art museums galore.
9. The subway - although it was often annoying, I didn't mind not driving all summer.
8. The Market in Nolita - I wish I could have bought so many things there!
7. The free concerts I found in various parks. While STL has a nice share of free music, its never anyone you've actually heard of!
6. Having so many interesting things to take pictures of. I really want a better camera, and maybe would like to really learn about photography.
5. The thrill of maybe crossing the path of a celebrity - although the two I saw were less than exciting.
Ummmm right now I can't think of more than that. Maybe someday I'll actually have 10 things!

THREE MORE DAYS!!!!

Headlights in DUMBO

Tonight I went to see Headlights play at Brooklyn Bridge Park. The park is technically in DUMBO - I had to fit it into this post somewhere - its my favorite NYC acronym - standing for 'development under the Manhattan Bridge overpass.' The show itself was in an old tobacco warehouse that was going to get torn down; they ended up saving the structure (roofless) for an event venue - it was very interesting. The show was free, so I justified a $5 Brooklyn Brewery beer, figuring it will be my last Brooklyn beer, and fittingly at the last show I'll see in NYC. Headlights were great...they even pulled 2 little girls out of the audience to dance on stage, very entertaining.
I've had a hard time concentrating at work, which is bad since I am trying to finish up so many things. All I can think about is being home in SIX DAYS!!!

All these pictures were from Brooklyn Bridge Park/Tobacco Warehouse - I'm feelin to lazy to label them.

A Busy Weekend

OK, uploading works now. This will be short-ish though because I'm still tired from everything June and I did this weekend (I'm sure she can vouch for this too!). Saturday, we walked from SoHo to lower Manhattan, including a stop at Ground Zero. We rode on the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, and then we walked to South Street Seaport for a view of the Brooklyn Bridge. Then we rode uptown to Grand Central Station, and walked to the Empire State Building. All day long, June was overwhelmed by how tall the buildings are, so I told her she had to see the tallest one. We ended up going up to the observatory at the top of the Empire State Building - a long wait but it was very nice up top - we got there just as the sun went down. The worst thing was there were TONS of people up there. I don't remember it being so crowded when I went up in 2000. Then we went to Grimaldi's pizza in Brooklyn. I had been there once and wanted to go one more time. Hopefully June thought it was worth it - we didn't get to eat until about 10:30 (after waiting forever for a train, and then waiting in line for a table).
Sunday we got up early so June could see where they tape the Today show. As soon as we got into Manhattan I realized I left our Broadway show tickets at home, so I left her at Rockefeller Center while I went back to get the tickets (about an hour round trip, stupid me!!). It ended up we missed most of the taping - I looked on my cable to see what time it was on, and it said 9-10 - apparently in NYC they show the Today show on an hour delay on Sunday. WTF?? After I got back with tickets, we hopped on a train up to the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. I had gone in the summer of 2001, but I think they've made significant improvements since then (although I still think MoBot is the nicest garden anywhere). They have an art installation there by Henry Moore, so that was cool. The best thing there (as it was in 2001) are the glass houses, modeled after those at Kew outside of London. It was a perfect day to be outside and walking around at the garden, but I had bought tickets to go see Gypsy on Broadway, so we only had a few hours at the garden. We rushed to get to the show, and got there just in time. It was fabulous, and had 3 2008 Tony award winners (best actress, and best featured actor and actress). The best actress, Patti LuPone, was great - she's famous from something on TV but I'm too lazy to google it right now. After the show, my roommate's friend Matty gave us a quick backstage tour, which was very fun. Then it was dinner in Little Italy, then back to Times Square for cheesecake and so June could see it in all its crazy lighted glory. We were home by 11, an improvement from Saturday.
June left this morning and got home without incident (apparently only my flights get delayed and canceled...). Only 8 days til I am home!!!


Statue of Liberty




Brooklyn Bridge



West from top of Empire State Building



North from top of Empire state building (see the Chrysler building?)



East from top of Empire State Building


glass houses at NYBG




lotus flower



Henry Moore sculpture



June and the Peggy Rockefeller rose garden



sculpture,



and another sculpture

Stupid Blogspot

June and I had a great time this weekend. We went non-stop, and hopefully she saw everything she hoped for and more! Unfortunately, something isn't working with posting pictures right now (I got an error 3 times in a row). I'll try again later tonight if I have time....but I need to get to work on some stuff for a review I wrote for my thesis advisor....boo!

Three Free Museums in One Day

My time is drawing to a close, so there were still a few museums/buildings I hadn't visited yet. So I planned my Friday evening based on some free museum hours. First I headed to the main branch of the New York Public Library - I had gone to this building a couple of times so far, but the building was never open. Today I finally got to go inside. It was absolutely beautiful! At the time it was built in the early 1900's it was the largest marble building in the US. There wasn't much to see there, except one room of famous portraits, but the building was enough to see. Next I headed farther uptown to the American Folk Art museum. Nothing overly exciting there, but there were some interesting things. My favorite was a rug crocheted with wonder bread bags in the 50's. The exhibit there is about Henry Darger, which seemed pretty messed up.
After going to pick up some tickets to see Gypsy on Broadway Sunday (June and I are going, and after the show we're getting a backstage tour from my roommate's friend Matty!), I headed back downtown to the Morgan Library and Museum. The museum consists of J.P. Morgan's house, library, and a new connecting structure that was designed by Renzo Piano, a Pritzker Prize winner. The library was build by a famous architect named McKim in 1906 (he was also one of the designers of the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893 and the house of every rich New Yorker, though most of them are gone now). The art there was all medieval stuff, not really my thing. I guess the most significant thing is that J.P. Morgan had collected 3 Gutenberg bibles - I'm not sure how many total exist, but this is the only place with 3 (this is believed to be the first book printed with a moveable type in the 1400 or 1500's?). But the library building was AMAZING inside. I'm really not sure if I've seen anything more ornate. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, but maybe you can check it out online. It was certainly worth a free trip!
I then went home and watched I Am Legend - I didn't know what it was about, but it was pretty weird and freaky. I think I liked it.
June should be in the air by now, so I need to do some final cleaning before going to pick her up at the airport! It should be a full weekend!!!



NY Public Library - I took this picture earlier this summer, but thought I'd show it again to remind you what the outside of the building looks like. For SATC fans, this is where Carrie's wedding was in the movie. The 2 lions are named Patience and Fortitude.



Interior of NYPL - entirely marble!




I almost didn't walk to the 3rd floor of the NYPL, but this was by far the most beautiful part of the building. Unfortunately, the pictures don't do it justice.




My favorite public piece of art in Manhattan - Atlas. I went to see it when Jackie was here, but there was a huge scaffolding around it - I guess they were restoring it or something?



The Morgan library. The outside doesn't look like much compared to the inside.

Booze, I mean Blues Cruise

Today I got to leave work early to help the magazine out with an ad sales event (I have no idea why they asked me, but I'm not complaining). We took about 20 clients on a Circle Line Blues Cruise that went in a circle through NY harbor. When we first got to the pier, my ad sales coworkers went to a nearby bar to wait for clients, and I just hung out at the pier with a magazine, with the hopes that any lost clients would ask me where to go. While I sat there, I saw Alan Cumming get dropped off by a bicycle-cart taxi guy.....so that's celebrity sighting number 2, although no one knows who Alan Cumming is, although I'd say he's more famous than my first sighting of Gael Garcia Bernal. Anyway, I think of him as the pervert in 'Circle of Friends'. But he was also on an episode of SATC and many other things (see http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001086/). So that was interesting. I took a picture of him since I'm a big dork.
The cruise was pretty nice. We got onto the boat a little early, so it wasn't too hard to reserve 20 seats (that was my primary job). There were a few belligerent folks who were angry at the reserved seats, but they lived. Good music and free drinks, amen. The cruise left from pier 83 on 42nd st at the Hudson, and went in a U to the Brooklyn Bridge and back - so we saw all of lower Manhattan, then Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty, and 4 of the 5 'waterfalls' art things (where is the 5th one, I wonder?), and the Brooklyn Bridge. I just wish I had a better camera. Maybe after paying off the debt of this summer.....
Oh, and if you wondered about the concert last night - Joshua Radin was awesome (i just quickly attempted to google for a youtube vid of his closing acoustic song which he did in the middle of the audience, but in my slightly drunk state i couldn't find it quickly). Vanessa Carlton was mediocre, but still interesting. She has some song about not liking her mom, and it just made me depressed for her. But Joshua Radin opened with my favorite song (Today) and also played my second fave (Lovely Tonight)...however he didnt play my third fave (Paperweight) but I guess I'll forgive him.
Tiiiiime for beeeeeed.



Alan Cumming looking particularly flamboyant at Pier 83.




The best picture I could get of Lady Liberty with my crappy camera in the dim light.



Even worse as far as my camera goes - but this is the waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge.

What a cutie!

John had his official hospital pictures taken today, and I thought they were so cute that I had to share.

Welcome John Thomas Wilkins!

After a long, grueling day of labor, John Thomas Wilkins finally joined us at 2:33 this morning. He is 21 inches long, and 7lb 14oz. Not knowing what was going on was very miserable, but I guess my mom and Jessica were there are still in the same boat for awhile. Much of the night I laid in bed crying and praying, worried that something horrible had happened until I finally heard all was well at about 3:30. I just kept praying over and over 'please take care of my sister, please take care of my sister' while the Ingrid Michaelson song 'Keep Breathing' went through my head (yes, I know, I'm a dork). Not a fun night for anyone, I guess. But he's here now, and all is well! Keep Jenny in your prayers so she can recover for the flight home in two weeks! Besides the picture here, my sister Jessica has more on her facebook page, if you want to check them out.

Here's the handsome devil:


On an unrelated note, tonight I'm going to see Joshua Radin - I love his music and I've never seen him live before, so I'm very excited. Vanessa Carlton is one of the openers, which could be good. Then I got asked to help the ad sales folks at the magazine do something tomorrow night on a Circle Line jazz cruise in the harbor, so that should be fun. Friday night I intend to hit the JP Morgan Library (home and museum) for 'pay what you want' and then June gets here Saturday, and then just one more week of work!

Hooray for Erikka!

Erikka came to visit me this weekend! She took a bus up from Charlottesville, which was supposed to get in to the meatpacking district at noon yesterday. She has always wanted to go to this French restaurant called Pastis (I guess they went there once on Sex and the City), and it is right by where the bus would drop her off, so I made a reservation for 12:30. Unfortunately her bus was a little late, so I sat at the bar there drinking coffee for awhile. But she finally got in and we had a fabulous brunch. I had a blissful baked sandwich (can't remember what it was called) but it was toast with ham, melted cheese, and a sunny-side up egg on top. Yum! After brunch we headed for Brooklyn Brewery for a free tour. The tour itself wasn't much, we just stood in a room while a guy told us about the history of the brewery and then about the brewing process. They don't have free tastings, but they had a deal with 6 beers for $20 so that's what we did. My favorite beer (and Erikka's) was called the Grand Cru, it was pretty similar to Schlafly's No. 15. I also had a really good IPA and a mediocre beer called Blast! We chose dinner based on proximity when Erikka really needed a bathroom - a pizza place in the Lower East Side. Then we headed up to a place called Terminal 5 for the She and Him show (Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward). The show was pretty good, I was just very tired and my feet hurt from standing so long.
Today we headed into the city and went to MoMA - Erikka had never been and I was glad to go again to see the Home Delivery exhibit on prefab housing. I really liked the exhibit, and got to see a few other things I hadn't seen the last time I was there. The best part of the Home Delivery exhibit were the 5 examples of prefab designs that were set up outside - you could actually walk through them all. After MoMA we went down to SoHo and walked around for awhile going into various shops. I passed a guy on the street wearing a Ted Drewes shirt, so I talked to him for awhile (he was obviously from STL). Eventually we ended up at Magnolia Bakery in the village for their famous cupcakes (which were pretty damn good, but I assumed they must be if we waited in line for 30 minutes for a $2.50 cupcake!) Then it was almost time for Erikka's bus to come, and we just walked around the meatpacking district. Now I just need to recover for the evening, and rest up for June's visit next weekend!
Too bad tomorrow is Monday again....


Erikka and I at Brooklyn Brewery enjoying some fabulous beers.



Three different pre-fab house examples at the Home Delivery exhibit at MoMa - from top. The bottom one was called micro house and was tiiiiny. The middle one that looks like a wooden trailer was one where you can stack a number of them together. The top one was some weird computer-generated design where you entered the aspects you wanted in a house and the computer designed it for you. This picture was taken from the top floor of the Cellophane house - the coolest design there.




This is an example of a shotgun house designed for New Orleans. It is made entirely of laser-cut plywood, that fit together kind of like a puzzle. The coolest thing in this house was a laser-cut design on the wood floors, based on an algorithm using New Orleans zip codes.




Cellophane house....This house is 5 floors and 1800 square feet. It was all wired with solar power and weird batteries, very interesting.




Erikka enjoying the last bite of her cupcake from Magnolia Bakery.

1,2,3,4 tell me that you love me more

Today I braved the butt-crack of dawn to go see Feist for free at Good Morning America. Those of you not familiar with indie-artist names, she's the one that sings the 1,2,3,4 that was all the rage in ipod commercials last winter. Anyway, she's awesome and when I saw her in STL this spring t iwas one of the best I've been to recently. So I woke up this morning at 4:30 and was standing in a line outside of Bryant Park (where fashion week also takes place) by 5:30. They let us in around 7, and I was very close to the front of the crowd. It was very strange because they had a black screen up on the stage, so we could hear Feist doing a soundcheck but we couldn't see anything. When I saw Tim McGraw on the Today show 7 years ago (yikes, that was 7 years ago!!) he did the soundcheck on the stage and everyone just got to shows, basically. Around 8 they sent out a warm up comedian who told us about how and when to clap and cheer. He asked if there were any people in the audience that knew the lyrics to Feist songs, so I raised my hand....they grabbed me and a few other people from the audience and took us over to where the weatherperson (apparently someone named Heidi? I'm a Today show girl...) was about to do the weather. She talked to us and said she was going to prompt us and then we'd sing the beginning of 1,2,3,4. So when she was on air, she just said something like 'Everyone here has heard of Feist and this popular song, but these people actually know the lyrics,' and then she cued us to start singing. I haven't seen it, but I was certainly on TV. Because they run these morning shows on an hour delay in IL/MO, I was able to have Kevin set up a tape, and my parents and sister got to see me on tv. Pretty crazy. After I was on tv, I had a slightly worse spot for the Feist concert, but it was still towards the front of the mass of people. Unfortunately a really old large man kept trying to stand right in front of me. But I survived.
Work went pretty quickly today, and soon enough it was 4:00 - I found out yesterday we technically can leave at 3:00 on fridays (summer hours?) so I was out of there. I headed up to the Guggenheim museum for the Friday evening 'pay what you want' deal. The exhibit right now is Louise Bourgeois, and it went through her entire career which is mostly sculpture. I'm not a huge fan, but it was still interesting to walk up the spiral pathway of the Guggenheim, experiencing the progression of her work. She was born in 1911 and is still creating art. Crazy! Other than the exhibit there wasn't much else on display. I saw a nice Rothko and an exhibit of early Kandinsky pieces that were pretty different from what I'm familiar with (there were even woodcutting prints, which were cool). So I was in and out of there, and glad to have only paid $3 instead of the $18 regular admission.
I'm SO TIRED I guess since I got up so early. I'm going to knit for a bit, then pass out. Erikka will get here about noon tomorrow, and we've got a full day planned. I can't wait!!
Entertaining side note: I had sent a ranting email to Delta airlines this week and they sent me a $100 voucher. Only time will tell if I have the audacity to use it....


Feist rocking out to 'Sealion.' Not my favorite song, but she played 'I feel it all' and '1,2,3,4' which are my favorites.




The GMA crew - Robin (?), Diane Sawyer (she looked gorgeous for however old she is), and Heidi the weathergirl that I was on tv with. I also talked with her briefly about music, and we talked about Ingrid Michaelson and Joshua Radin....who I informed her is playing in NYC next week (and I'm going!). I loved her dress, and she had on a really fun ring.




This was the fat head of the old guy that kept standing right in front of me. Jackass.



Weird scaffolding at the Guggenheim museum. It was sad to not be able to appreciate the building's exterior completely, but it was interesting. The dumbest thing is that they're selling jewelry made of pieces that came off of the building during restorations - for HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS.



Looking up through the atrium of the Guggenheim. I love this building!!!

Punch Bros!

One thing I love about NYC is its abundance of music...and a good amount of it is free. Last week I wasted time by googling a number of artists to see if they might be playing here some time soon, and I discovered 1. that Nickel Creek's Chris Thile is in a new band called the Punch Brothers, and 2. that the Punch Brothers were going to be playing for free tonight. The show was supposed to be in Battery Park City, but because of forecasted thunderstorms, they moved the show to a nearby high school.
So after work I headed down to lower Manhattan to find the show. I ended up with a great seat (although the auditorium was so small that all the seats were great) about 8 rows back. And the music was fabulous. They played a few songs I knew from Chris Thile's last solo album, and then lots of Punch Bros stuff which was all great. The highlight was when they covered a Wilco song in their encore - they played 'Poor Places' from the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - by far my favorite Wilco endeavor. I just never imagined anyone covering any of those songs and doing them justice - but this was great. By far my favorite musical experience of the summer thus far.....but I have high hopes for Joshua Radin next Wednesday.
Work is keeping me plenty busy. Tomorrow, the coordinator of my AAAS program is coming up to check out the office and she's taking me to lunch. So that will be fun. Then Erikka is coming on Saturday/Sunday. Then June is going to come next weekend. Then the following weekend I head to DC and then come home. The end is increasingly in sight!!! (20 days!)



This was my least out-of-focus picture of the Punch Brothers.

Southern Hospitality

This weekend I flew down to North Carolina to see Jenny, Charlie, and the appendages of her unborn child constantly bulging from her abdomen.
You are probably well aware of the fun I've had with flying lately. Unfortunately they were continued on Saturday. My flight from NYC left almost an hour and a half late, first because something was wrong with the brakes, then because someone needed medical attention and needed to deplane. I was connecting in Cincinnati, and arrived there at about 9:12 with my flight leaving at 9:25. I sprinted through the airport to get to the shuttle to the remote terminal for my connecting gate, but when I got there the door was closed and they said I couldn't get on even though I could see the plane. They told me they had booked me on a later flight 'quite some time ago.' Gee, thanks. I was irate (I'll write my letter to the lovely folks at Delta later tonight) but they got me on a US Airways flight that left at 12:15 getting to Charlotte around 1:30. So it could have been worse, but I still missed out on about 3 hours I should have had to spend with Jenny. To make things interesting, Kevin called me while I was at the airport waiting for my flight to let me know he needed more help to unload my new piano at our house. My family helped him load it up, but not everyone could drive to STL to unload....so I tried calling just about anyone and everyone. Thankfully, Carlos was around and willing to help out - yay, Carlos! So now there is a huge piano in my dining room. And the furniture it displaced I guess will just sit there til I get home and help to figure out where to put it....
Jenny and I went shopping that afternoon, before going back to her house where Charlie's parents were also visiting. We went to Foothills Brewery for dinner that night (yum) and wandered through downtown. Sunday, after Charlie's parents finally left (his mom is fine but I get so tired of listening to his dad...), we went to the Reynolda house for a tour and walked around the gardens as much as we could tolerate in the heat. For dinner, we grilled chicken (on the bone - apparently the first time it has ever been consumed in their house since Jenny doesn't like touching meat on bones...) and fresh-picked squash and cabbage and it was blissful. This morning, Charlie drove me to the airport and of course for once my flight was uneventful. Then I went to work to get a little bit done. Exciting, I know.
I had a great time seeing Jenny so very pregnant. It was funny how often she would make weird pained faces and push back at the baby kicking her in the ribs. I'm sure its not comfortable, but watching her reaction was very entertaining. I also got to feel what I guess was the kid's foot sticking out weird all the time. Strange. And I love their nursery, the hand-made crib is gorgeous. Now all they need is for that baby to come, and it sounds like that could happen any time.....



Jenny and I at Reynolda House.




Side view of Jenny.




Reynolda House, AKA the bungalow.




These were socks I was knitting like a fiend so I could give them to Jenny to wear at the hospital should she want to wear socks there. They are resting on the beautiful quarter-sawn oak side of the baby's crib.

Seven Down, Three To Go

This wasn't a bad week. I was kept very busy fact-checking a number of things, most of which were interesting. In particular, I enjoyed learning about vertical farming....if you're bored, check out www.verticalfarm.org. Pretty crazy stuff. I also learned about FabLabs, or fabrication laboratories, where they have machines to make just about anything you can imagine. I am also working on writing a book review (maybe I already mentioned that?), but it won't be in until Nov. I'll take what I can get.
Yesterday evening I went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn to see Jerry Douglas for free. I took the train to the opposite side of the park, with the intent to walk through the park, which I haven't done before. Bad idea. For some reason, when I get into a park, I'm suddenly completely disoriented. So I walked through what was basically the woods, and even though I had a map and thought I knew where I was going, I ended up in the wrong place. So my nice stroll through the park ended up being a twice as long hike. Oh well. But the show was pretty good....can't beat free! I was glad to have the distraction, yesterday was a little rough since it was our 4th wedding anniversary and obviously I wasn't with Kevin.
Today work was fine, nothing out of the ordinary. Around 3:00 I realized that no one seemed to be around. While I was talking with another intern about everyone being gone, someone walked by and told us most people had gone to a bar for a drink. So we packed up and headed to do the same. It was nice to get out of the office early, because I'm trying to finish up my current knitting project in time for my arrival in Charlotte tomorrow morning. That's right, I'm going to visit Jenny and Charlie in NC. I found a cheap flight and decided just to go. I felt a little bad for spending the money, because I really don't have it, but then today I got a $100 check for going to the beach last Friday. So that paid for a good chunk of it. Anyway, its time for me to eat my dinner (pork chop and velveeta shells and cheese....i'm eating as much of that while I can since Kevin won't eat it) and a knitting marathon before my 5:00AM cab ride to the airport!

Phun in Philly

This weekend I took the Megabus to Philly. I spent Saturday walking around Old City on a self-guided walking tour seeing all of the Colonial sites. It was fun, and so nice to be in a less crowded, less crazy city. I saw a lot of really old buildings, the oldest of which I think was Christ Church (1760's I think). I was really surprised at the number of historic buildings which are gone though....there were many signs throughout the city saying 'this person lived at a house that once stood here'....in particular, the house where Washington lived while he was president and Benjamin Franklin's house are no longer there. I guess they were just torn down before anyone thought of preservation. There were also a number of buildings that were historical reconstructions. But lots of neat things to see (the highlights are in pictures below).
Around 3:00, Keith and Shirly met up with me. We had homemade ice cream at a soda fountain type place (amazing!), walking down to Penn's landing along the Delaware River, and then walked through various other areas and finally to dinner at a great Vietnamese place. On our way to the train station to go back to their house, we went to a Macy's (used to be a Wanamaker's) to see a huge gold organ, and I bought a fun wallet on major sale. It was so nice to go to a Macy's that wasn't freaking crazy! I've walked into Macy's in NYC a few times, and almost immediately turn around and leave every time. We also walked into the lobby of a new skyscraper, Comcast Center, which is now the tallest building in Philly. The lobby was really cool - it had a huge LED screen along one wall with more than a million pixels, and they just show random clips of beautiful images (we saw ones of the ocean, trees, and the earth/moon seen from space). Oh, but my favorite building was City Hall. Very cool.
This morning, we went to breakfast near Keith and Shirly's place, and then they dropped me off at the Philadelphia Museum of Art while they both went to work. The art museum was pretty great....they had quite a lot of impressionist art, which I'm always a fan of. No Tiffany glass though, damn them! I really enjoyed the museum though.
After the art museum, I was walking back towards the city, intending to just walk through parts I hadn't seen yet before getting on the bus back to NYC. I ended up talking to my sister Jenny, who directed me towards the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts building....a cool old building she had learned about. So I walked to check that building out, and it ended up having an art museum as well. The interior of the building looked so cool that I figured I might as well pay the $8 to walk through and check it out. It was definitely worth it. I believe the PAFA was the first art museum established in the country, which is pretty cool. This building was built for the first American world's fair in the 1870's (I think?). After PAFA, I just walked through the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood since I've read about it a lot in Jennifer Weiner's books (In Her Shoes, Good In Bed, etc). Pretty swanky. I walked to the bus stop and got there just in time for the trip back to NYC.
The bus was convenient and cheap, but both trips were kind of crazy - the bus drivers swerved in and out of lanes and stopped quickly the whole time. Coming back to NYC, we were getting close and I could see the city, and the traffic was horrible. I figured it was because of traffic merging into Lincoln tunnel, but then I could see the emergency vehicles in the West bound lanes blocking traffic. There was a COMPLETELY BURNED OUT SHELL OF A BUS on the other side of the road. Nothing left but a charred bus frame. Not cool. So I'll have to watch the news tonight and see what happened. But it was a great weekend, and I'm so grateful to Keith and Shirly for hanging out with me and letting me stay with them! It was so nice to see some familiar faces.



Independence Hall. I didn't get to go inside, but I wish I could have.




The Mercantile Exchange building. If I remember correctly, it housed the first stock exchange. It was one of my favorites.




Elfreth's Alley - the oldest, continually inhabited street in the country. It was so cute, with really narrow row houses. I saw one for sale, and I wonder what something like that is worth!




City Hall - this building was huge and awesome. The tower has a stature of William Penn on top - its the tallest statue on top of any building in the world - the statue is 37 ft tall.




The good ol' Liberty Bell.




Looking up the side of the Comcast Center. This was the building with the awesome lobby.




The Philadelphia Museum of Art. These are the stairs that Rocky famously ran up (not that I've ever seen that movie though).



This was a set that Marc Chagall painted for a ballet production. It was huge and beautiful!




The Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. My sister could tell you a lot more about the significance of this building, but I think she said it was pretty wacky for the time period. You better appreciate this picture, because I was standing in the middle of the street to take it - there wasn't a sidewalk across the street because of construction.




The interior of the Academy of Fine Arts building. It was VERY ornate - crazy floor and wall tiles. This part had a beautiful red and gold wall pattern, and then the ceiling was blue with gold stars painted on it.