Man, I am just incredibly depressed. It's interesting, though, because I had a really good day yesterday and Omar and I are communicating nicely and so on, but I didn't get anything like enough sleep for the millionth day in a row and tomorrow is PMS Alert Day.

So I am able to know intellectually that it is for these reasons and not any real ones that I have that heavy feeling in my face, as though it is not possible that I will ever smile again. Sleep is important. This is a public service announcement from the sleep deprivation council.

So the other day, Mo dropped an email to a small private list we're on and said that she'd be having a six hour layover in Philadelphia and did any of the Philadelphia continent want to meet her and her sister. And I thought, hey, why not? What's the point of being unemployed if you don't take advantage of being able to go to Philadelphia on a work day? So I went to Philly for the day.

Amusingly, my other horoscope for yesterday said, "A short trip out of town might be necessary today, KYMM. This is rather disheartening, as it takes you away from your current love interest, but perhaps it's just as well. A phone call on this emotionally charged day might advance your relationship more than a forced and nervous evening out together. Accept verbal good wishes, and acknowledge that you're looking forward to seeing your friend again. Then get on with the job!"

I sort of vaguely thought that if I took a train around 11a I'd get to the airport by 2.30p, and I was actually completely correct, for once in my life. I left the house later than I meant to, but as I walked into the station they were announcing all aboard for the 11.07a train to Trenton, and I flew down onto the track and made it just in time.

When I got to 30th St. Station, there was an airport train that was running late, so I ran to the bathroom as I really needed to do and got some magazines as I also really needed to do, and by the time I got back to the track, the late train had come and gone. But it was only 20 minutes to the next train and Mo wasn't due for an hour yet anyway, so I didn't fret.

And rightly, because I not only made it to the airport on time, but there was waiting around action since their plane was late and then how long did it take them to get off of the plane and get round to where I was waiting? Ages, that's how long. Apparently, they had to pee. Whatever.

So then there was Mo! And there was Caroline! Who was adorable! And it was so great to see them! Boy, were they sleep-deprived, though, much more so than I am now or was yesterday, yet not depressed, because they were seeing me. That's the key, you see.

Eventually, they got off their phones and said, "Where are we going? What are we doing?" "How should I know?" I answered, "I don't live in this city!" So we got on the train and went to Suburban Station, because that is basically in the centre of things (which might explain why they call it Center City) and there'd probably be somewhere to eat and something to look at.

I've gotta tell you, Philly is well ahead of any other city that I have ever been to in terms if public art. Seriously! There's the giant clothespin:

...the giant dominos:

...the giant 60's Love:

...and, most importantly, the giant column of feet and asses:

You ain't got nothing if you ain't got a giant column of feet and asses. That's what I say.

We were famished, though, so the first thing that we did was dive at a place to shove some food into our faces. Accidentally, in the falling, we ended up in the fanciest restaurant in Philadelphia, the Capital Grille. That extra E should have given it away to us.

We looked at the menu in the window, and the lunch menu was reasonable, but lunch ended at 4p and dinner with its $35 entrees started at 5p and it was about 4.10p. So we go in and are seated at a beautiful table with a white tablecloth and we're all in our sweaty beaters and t-shirts and jeans and shorts and dragging suitcases and so on, and you know what? They treated us exactly as though we belonged there are were dressed appropriately, which is the mark of a really classy place.

We ended up making meals out of soup and appetizers, which were quite good and quite filling. I ordered a bowl of split pea soup (which was read back to me by the waitress as "a bowl of pee", somewhat to my dismay) and some potatoes au gratin, which ended up being way too much to eat by myself. And, considering the prices, one would hope so.

Caroline told all kinds of cool stories about her job, and promised me unaired episodes of a certain tv show so she is now my best friend in the whole wide world. She talked about that reality model show, The Last Surviving Model Standing or whatever it was called, and how the losing girl talked at length about how beauty comes from your pH balance or whatever, and I said that yes, beauty is in the spleen and that I have kidneys that would stop a train. "Maybe if you threw them in the conductor's eyes!" Mo answered brightly.

Even sleep deprived, she's the funniest girl in the room.

We left before being used to order $35 entrees and wandered around through the tunnel that goes through City Hall. There are all of these evil-looking gargoyles and columns and things under there. I believe it's where the Founding Fathers did the human sacrifices.

God, I'm out of commentary. We took more pictures.

We decided to take the 6p train back to the airport so that we'd meet up with Corina and Wes before they had to get on the plane, but since before that we had to go to Starbucks to get the Haven't-Slept-Since-Saturday twins some caffeine, we missed it and had to take the 6.30p. Which was absolutely fine, since they were stuck in traffic.

And that left time for a homeless guy to fall in love with Caroline and lecture her on the fact that it didn't matter how beautiful she was on the outside if her insides weren't beautiful as well. So she threw her kidneys in his eyes.

So we were waiting for the train, and the train came in and the announcement was made, "The airport train is on Track 3A," but the train that we were looking at was on Track 4. "Why don't you ask the conductor?" Mo said, so I walked over to the conductor and asked him if that was the airport train. And he looked at me with such contempt that I took a step backwards.

"Heh heh, um, because the announcement says a different track, heh heh..." I continued all smoothly, and he deigned to open his mouth and snarled quietly, "Yes, that's the train." I ran back to Mo and Caroline as fast as I could, "That conductor thinks that I am the stupidest person alive!" Seriously, I have never seen such a look to loathing on the face of anyone whom I wasn't actually dating.

The train was one of those trains with the slammy doors, the conductors click them open at the various stops, and then when the train starts again, they automatically slam closed. Well, at one stop the door started to slam as a man flung himself down the aisle and tried to catch it, but as he caught it, he tripped against the door and it slammed right on his fingers. He was screaming and in such pain that he didn't actually realize that it was himself leaning on the door that was making it worse, but he finally pulled his hand out (as we all sat frozen and not helping) and the second he did, the Meanest Conductor in the World shoved the door open and yelled right in the guy's face, "Terminal A next!" and slammed the door shut again.

"Well," I said, "At least we know that he doesn't just hate me, he hates everybody who has the temerity to ride on his train!" I can only imagine that he was standing on the other side of the door, watching the guy's little fingers wiggle and turn blue, thinking, "This is the greatest day of my life."

So then we were at the airport, trying to meet up with Corina and Wes, realizing that actually having a drink at the bar at the Marriott totally just wasn't going to happen, so we ended up meeting for about ten minutes right in front of the security check.

We fit in about two hours of fun and conversation into that ten minutes, and then had to send them off to the plane. We had a fairly entertaining time watching them strip-search Caroline, and then they were off to Amsterdam and Corina and Wes and I were off to dinner.

We actually ate at a slightly less fancy restaurant than the Capital Grille, but close. I haven't eaten at two white-tablecloth restaurants in one day since, well, ever! Not to mention eating in these restaurants while wearing shorts and a beater.

I was so stuffed afterwards that I could barely waddle away from the table. "You had one crab cake and some creme brulee!" Wes kept exclaiming, but it certainly felt like more than that. He also kept exclaiming, "You ate at the Capital Grille!" and "You were the Philadelphia tour guide?!" Wes was having a swell time.

"Say Corina, what was the big body of water that Mo would have seen from the plane coming in here?"
"That would be the Delaware River."
"O. I said that it was the Atlantic Ocean."
"Pennsylvania is a land-locked state, you see."
"Yeah, I thought it might be."
"You were the Philadelphia tour guide?!"

Then they nicely drove me to Trenton and I got home by 1a. It's good to be unemployed.

Check out that year ago today link below, what is it about 8/11 that makes me go crazy with the taking of the pictures?!

Today's horoscope:
At this late date, weaving extra threads into the fabric will just ruin the pattern. Does the Universe want you to be comfortable, or is it trying to keep you on your toes? Specialists find new demand for their services.

One year ago today:
276 pictures I took, just think how much worse it could be!

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Last Updated Tues 12 August 23:42:09 2003