Memorial Day to remember
Wow, I need more four-day weekends.
Just a wonderful time ... sometimes busy but never hectic, and with lots of quiet time as well. Except for Thursday night, when I got to Rosemary's around 2 a.m., got settled for bed around 3 and then was awakened around 4 by the construction crews out on the street, paving the road with machines that shook the house. Barely slept that night, but made do.
Friday morning Rosemary left for work, and I later visited my dad. Now that I have a car, I get to help him out on his errands. His leg is really bothering him -- oh, sciatica -- so he isn't walking around as much. We went to Shop-Rite so he could get Klondike Bars and some stuff for Memorial Day cooking.
What I'm at home with my father, we often talk about family craziness, TV, sports. As I get older (and he does too), it's been interesting to hear him let drop all kinds of family stories and dirt. And then we watch a bunch of TV court shows.
Rosemary got out of work at 3 p.m., so I drove down to Old City to get her. While coming up Fifth Street, I saw her dad's van for his window business in the block ahead of me, so that was funny. That night we went to see "28 Weeks Later" in a quasi-anniversary (we saw "28 Days Later" on our first date). Scary as hell, very good. Plus it has Idris (Stringer Bell from "The Wire") Elba in it. And somehow we got through it despite a bunch of total Northeast Philly trash sitting behind us and trying their best to talk through the movie. What made it even worse is that 15 people at most were there, and these fools sit in the row right behind us! But now I have the music from the movie stuck in my head, and it keeps making me tense every damn time.
Saturday morning we lazed about and then went into Pennypack Park for some walking around. Beautiful weather, lots of sunshine, everything's green, people are out, dogs running around, barbecue in the air ... great. We went up a trail we hadn't done before where most of it was just a beaten path into the woods. I took a ton of photos, which will get up on Flickr sometime soon. After all that walking around in the heat (with water, of course), we still felt pretty beat, so I hit up Rita's for some water ice, and then visited her parents and had some naptime later.
The napping was crucial for later, since we were going to Sugar Town benefit for Girls Rock Philly at Tritone. And suddenly there I was, in a club at a rock show in Philly on a Saturday night. It had been ages since I did that, and then it felt like home. But you can't really go home again: We were in a smoke-free Tritone without Rick D., and across the street was a Bob and Barbara's without Nate Wiley. How things change, even in the last six months. But there was Sara at the door, we saw Megan and Mason out front (Megan's our latest pregnant friend -- something's going around!), saw Amy S. and Amy P. on vacation from working at Pitchfork in Chicago, and Rosemary got reacquainted with Tammy Faye Starlite, who was performing with a Runaways cover band called The Stay-At-Homes.
And they rocked. The songs were tight, the show was good. We also saw some of the Liberty City Drag Kings (including latex gloves and lube ...), and watched some of Baptist Preachers, who weren't really our bag (but the lead singer was working it the fuck out) so we headed home. We had discussed going to The Dining Car after the show, but decided to just go home and save our money and bellies.
On our way back home we were going past Fluke's, where dreamcowgirl is known to hang out, and I said, "It would be fucked up if Beth was in there right now!" We had left her a message saying we were going out tonight and to see if she wanted to meet up, but hadn't heard anything. We get in the door, and Rosemary's phone rings. It's Beth. She was at Fluke's (dang!) and now she's at The Dining Car with some friends (double dang!). I guess that positive-thinking mess can work sometimes.
So we go right back out and meet them. Amid the food, we watched the crowd, especially the drunk sluts. One girl -- wearing black tights, chunky green platform heels and a "shirt" that left her braless, tattooed boobs floppin' -- had to hold onto the counter to walk, and almost fell down. Another girl had bright red pants and shoes that matched her hair (and also almost fell down), and basically wore her bra as a shirt, and her friend slowed down while returning to her table so she could check out her own ass. Classy.
We got home by about 3, got to bed around 4:30. All this for a night that was going to end at 1!
As expected, Sunday was draggy. We went to Franklin Mills so Rosemary could return a purse that broke (and she just bought it the week before), and I did some shopping before we did a late Mexican lunch. After some more lounging-around time, we saw my parents and watched the end of the Indy 500 before heading to angela_la_la's barbecue. Delicious hand-ground burgers, homemade chicken sausage, homemade ice cream! I ate ... a lot ... on top of the Mexican earlier.
Woke up Monday bloated and meat-filled, but that didn't stop me from eating more hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken and steak at my parents' house later that day. After a few hours there, we drove out to Reading to visit my friend Nick and his mom. In high school I spent a lot of time with Nick's family, especially when we did plays and during summers. They're my second family. His youngest brother and sister were there, too; the last time I saw them, they were still children ... now the brother's 17 and the sister's almost 13! When she was 2, she saw me as a giant plaything, and I'd go all over the house with her playing and doing girl stuff. Now we're talking about how seventh-grade sucks. It had been 2 1/2 years since I last saw them, and it was so nice to catch up again.
Tuesday I dropped Rosemary off at the El, and then I headed back to Connecticut and somehow got through work last night. I miss being in Philly, and this time it was great just being able to lie about with Rosemary doing nothing, along with going out and doing things. It felt a lot like when I used to live in Philly and spend the weekends with Rosemary, hanging around the house, playing with the guinea pig, going shopping and just plain enjoying each other's company. And to see my parents, friends and everyone is wonderful.
I need more four-day weekends. But this will hold me for a while.
Just a wonderful time ... sometimes busy but never hectic, and with lots of quiet time as well. Except for Thursday night, when I got to Rosemary's around 2 a.m., got settled for bed around 3 and then was awakened around 4 by the construction crews out on the street, paving the road with machines that shook the house. Barely slept that night, but made do.
Friday morning Rosemary left for work, and I later visited my dad. Now that I have a car, I get to help him out on his errands. His leg is really bothering him -- oh, sciatica -- so he isn't walking around as much. We went to Shop-Rite so he could get Klondike Bars and some stuff for Memorial Day cooking.
What I'm at home with my father, we often talk about family craziness, TV, sports. As I get older (and he does too), it's been interesting to hear him let drop all kinds of family stories and dirt. And then we watch a bunch of TV court shows.
Rosemary got out of work at 3 p.m., so I drove down to Old City to get her. While coming up Fifth Street, I saw her dad's van for his window business in the block ahead of me, so that was funny. That night we went to see "28 Weeks Later" in a quasi-anniversary (we saw "28 Days Later" on our first date). Scary as hell, very good. Plus it has Idris (Stringer Bell from "The Wire") Elba in it. And somehow we got through it despite a bunch of total Northeast Philly trash sitting behind us and trying their best to talk through the movie. What made it even worse is that 15 people at most were there, and these fools sit in the row right behind us! But now I have the music from the movie stuck in my head, and it keeps making me tense every damn time.
Saturday morning we lazed about and then went into Pennypack Park for some walking around. Beautiful weather, lots of sunshine, everything's green, people are out, dogs running around, barbecue in the air ... great. We went up a trail we hadn't done before where most of it was just a beaten path into the woods. I took a ton of photos, which will get up on Flickr sometime soon. After all that walking around in the heat (with water, of course), we still felt pretty beat, so I hit up Rita's for some water ice, and then visited her parents and had some naptime later.
The napping was crucial for later, since we were going to Sugar Town benefit for Girls Rock Philly at Tritone. And suddenly there I was, in a club at a rock show in Philly on a Saturday night. It had been ages since I did that, and then it felt like home. But you can't really go home again: We were in a smoke-free Tritone without Rick D., and across the street was a Bob and Barbara's without Nate Wiley. How things change, even in the last six months. But there was Sara at the door, we saw Megan and Mason out front (Megan's our latest pregnant friend -- something's going around!), saw Amy S. and Amy P. on vacation from working at Pitchfork in Chicago, and Rosemary got reacquainted with Tammy Faye Starlite, who was performing with a Runaways cover band called The Stay-At-Homes.
And they rocked. The songs were tight, the show was good. We also saw some of the Liberty City Drag Kings (including latex gloves and lube ...), and watched some of Baptist Preachers, who weren't really our bag (but the lead singer was working it the fuck out) so we headed home. We had discussed going to The Dining Car after the show, but decided to just go home and save our money and bellies.
On our way back home we were going past Fluke's, where dreamcowgirl is known to hang out, and I said, "It would be fucked up if Beth was in there right now!" We had left her a message saying we were going out tonight and to see if she wanted to meet up, but hadn't heard anything. We get in the door, and Rosemary's phone rings. It's Beth. She was at Fluke's (dang!) and now she's at The Dining Car with some friends (double dang!). I guess that positive-thinking mess can work sometimes.
So we go right back out and meet them. Amid the food, we watched the crowd, especially the drunk sluts. One girl -- wearing black tights, chunky green platform heels and a "shirt" that left her braless, tattooed boobs floppin' -- had to hold onto the counter to walk, and almost fell down. Another girl had bright red pants and shoes that matched her hair (and also almost fell down), and basically wore her bra as a shirt, and her friend slowed down while returning to her table so she could check out her own ass. Classy.
We got home by about 3, got to bed around 4:30. All this for a night that was going to end at 1!
As expected, Sunday was draggy. We went to Franklin Mills so Rosemary could return a purse that broke (and she just bought it the week before), and I did some shopping before we did a late Mexican lunch. After some more lounging-around time, we saw my parents and watched the end of the Indy 500 before heading to angela_la_la's barbecue. Delicious hand-ground burgers, homemade chicken sausage, homemade ice cream! I ate ... a lot ... on top of the Mexican earlier.
Woke up Monday bloated and meat-filled, but that didn't stop me from eating more hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken and steak at my parents' house later that day. After a few hours there, we drove out to Reading to visit my friend Nick and his mom. In high school I spent a lot of time with Nick's family, especially when we did plays and during summers. They're my second family. His youngest brother and sister were there, too; the last time I saw them, they were still children ... now the brother's 17 and the sister's almost 13! When she was 2, she saw me as a giant plaything, and I'd go all over the house with her playing and doing girl stuff. Now we're talking about how seventh-grade sucks. It had been 2 1/2 years since I last saw them, and it was so nice to catch up again.
Tuesday I dropped Rosemary off at the El, and then I headed back to Connecticut and somehow got through work last night. I miss being in Philly, and this time it was great just being able to lie about with Rosemary doing nothing, along with going out and doing things. It felt a lot like when I used to live in Philly and spend the weekends with Rosemary, hanging around the house, playing with the guinea pig, going shopping and just plain enjoying each other's company. And to see my parents, friends and everyone is wonderful.
I need more four-day weekends. But this will hold me for a while.