philly

AK in South America

My college roommate, good friend and general International Man of Mystery, AK is now travelling through South America for the next six months or so. I am oh so jealous.

He's been working IT for a major law firm for the past four years and he's taking a break from the madness before [hopefully] attending law school in the Fall. He's applied to schools all across the States and locally here at Temple. AK and dragonballyee in one city again? I don't think Illy is quite ready for that, but we'll play it by ear. Wherever he lands, he's sure to have a blast.

If you'd like to follow along with me, you can bookmark his blog or check back here for major updates and get a link from my "People I Know" list on the left hand side of this blog. He speaks no spanish, but when has that been a factor for the American tourist? Oh the American tourist.

Welcome aboard El Tren Vicarious.

A Few More NYC Shots

Here are a few more shots from the weekend in NYC. I tried to take as many shots as possible without taking one, literally, every other step. It was hard to hold back, but I did.

Here's the album.

Graff: I Miss It

When I moved down here 6 months ago, one of the first things I noticed was a lack of graffiti here. I've been told that pre-1997 it was pretty heavy all over the place. While I'm not saying that graffiti is for everyone and everywhere, I believe that there is a place for it. And I miss it.

While in NYC last weekend, I saw a lot of it, in the hour or so I walked around for on Sunday. I wandered through SoHo and Little Italy and stopped short of Chinatown on my walk with Lady. This doggie was my fav. It reminds me of Harring.

So, go ahead, take a look and let me know what you think.

NJ Transit Poster

I was riding back from NYC to Illy and I saw this sign that caught my eye. I think this "terror watch" stuff is getting a little crazy. I know it's a ploy to keep us all in a constant state of panic so that we stay with our current "leader" through these trying times, but we can't let it get to us.

I ran into some serious characters on my ride back from NYC. I finally got to sleep only to be awakened and rushed to another train car because there was some unknown electrical situation going on. Something smelled funny, I recall. I just stumbled with my 3 bags 2 cars further back. I switched to the SEPTA train in Trenton and more characters were found on that train. It was slightly less nutty than a Greyhound bus.

All in all, the transportation was pretty good. Roundtrip, the 2 trains, off peak, cost less than $30. The trains run every hour on the hour on the weekends so there are plenty to choose from. The last train leaves NY/Illy around 11pm.

So, friends, get your ass on a train or a cheap Southwest flight or a Go Fare or something. Look, US Airways' Go Fares even has the Rocky statue on its homepage. It's a sign folks. I got an extra cabin bed and I'm gonna go to get a couch in the next few weeks so there's plenty of sleeping surfaces. If there are more people coming, I gots sleeping bags as well.

And on a more serious note...

The first Presidential Debate of 2004 will be televised live from the University of Miami where my buddy Abbetha goes to school. Let's see if she can get herself into the venue. Wouldn't that be funny? To spot a friend in the audience of a presidential debate? It would be like watching a football game and then seeing your buddy with their face painted holding up some absurd sign. Go Abbetha!

4th of July Weekend

A year later, here we were in Illy. So far, the gang has celebrated the 4th, en masse, in Washington, DC; Chicago, IL and now, Illy, PA. Rain was involved in one way or another in each city, but we've always gotten through and had a blast regardless, take that Ma Nature! So, without further ado, here are the pics from our weekend.

We ate a round of 'steaks at Steve's Steaks on South Street on Saturday night and a double round Sunday afternoon at Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's Steaks. After some discussion, we decided that Pat's King of Steaks was indeed, King. I wanted to take a trip over to Rick's Steaks in Reading Terminal on Monday, but we were foiled by the pseudo-Monday holiday and it was closed. In my opinion, Rick's is the best cheesesteak in Illy, that I've tasted so far.

Before it got too late, we got some beers at Foodery. But to our surprise, it stays open to midnight every night, how awesome is that. This place has an awesome beer selection. You can take single beers, 6 packs of beers or a mix-a-6 pack of your own choice. We also got a bunch of Kahlua pre-mixed drinks. Sweet, sweet Mudslides and White Russians go down so easy, but feel so not so nice later.

Here's a quick lesson on buying beer, wine and liquor on Illy: you can buy liquor and wine in one store and beer in another, never all together. No beer, liquor or wine is to be sold on Sundays or before noon. You can only buy 6 packs or fewer from bars and convenience stores, yes, that's right, you can walk in to a bar, buy a 6 pack and walk out. You can buy a case of beer from a beer distributor, but no more than 1 case at a time; however, you can go back in and buy another case, but no more than 1 at a time. You can drink anywhere you want, as long as your beer is in a brown bag or covered unless otherwise noted - just assume you can drink wherever you are, just cover it up. Illy likes to drink.

Next on our docket was an all you can eat ice cream event at Festival Piers on the Delaware River. It was a charity event to fight pediatric leukemia. But for $5, we all ate our money's worth, me, with 10 cups and 3 ice pops, took home the prize within our group for big eater, but I'm nothing compared to Kobayashi who would eat me to shame.

Saturday night we met up with KT's high school buddy Russ who lives in Illy by the Art Museum. He biked over for some beers and we headed out to South Street for some sightseeing and beers at Tattooed Mom's.

Sunday started off with some cheddar and gouda omlettes courtesy of moi. Mmmmm, cheesy pseudo-gourmet omlettes. They make my tummy happy and oh so full. We topped them off with some nice hash browns. We headed over for the 'steak challenge and later watched the fireworks on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway as they soared above the Philadelphia Art Museum about a half a mile down the street. It was a short show, only about 20 minutes, but it was nice. I had several Kahulas and beers; those Kahulas did me in. I was back at the apartment passed out well before 1am, but I still had a ton of fun.

Monday started with some Madden 2004 between me and AK. Needless to say, I won. I also won 2 more times before he left on Monday night. Then, we were off to pick up the car and go get some eats. But as we walked towards where we parked, we noticed that, there was no car. It looked like we got towed. I called 411 to see if the Illy PD had it. I gave them Lady's plate number. They said they didn't have it in their system and their conclusion after 8 seconds? "You're car was stolen, tell me your location and we'll send a car over to take a statement." Good lord. It was stolen! We started to freak out a bit until some old guy moving furniture stopped to talk to us. "Did you park a Nissan with CT plates here?" YES we said. "Oh, that got towed earlier this morning." Did you see the company that towed it? "Yeah, Philadelphia Parking Authority." The car was NOT stolen. Stupid Illy cops. So, we were off for a trip to the Philadelphia Parking Authority lot. $100, a $25 ticket and 1.5 hours later, we were back on course for lunch, only Reading Terminal was closed. We got some [unbelievably] fast Chinese food and then dropped off KT at the train station. Back at the apartment, I waxed AK in 2 more games of Madden before we dropped him off at Illy International Airport.

All in all, a great weekend, that is, if you take out the whole towing thing. Oh well, such is life. After 1.5 months in Illy, we've amassed 1 tow and 3 tickets. That's still less than a lot!

Back in New York

So, I'm back in New York and using somebody else's WiFi in my complex. I went out and watched Dodgeball and it was waaaay funnier than I thought it was going to be. I went in expecting another mid-level comedy with Ben Sitller and Vince Vaughn with Stiller's wifey Christine Taylor getting better and better. But what I/we got was an incredibly funny comedy with way more laughs than just the highlights from the various commercials out there for it. Stiller's squared off Fu Manchu mustache was just eggcellent along with his 70s-80s mullet and outfits to match. Everyone should see this one. And not to mention the loads of awesome cameos throughout the movie, they're all so fitting.

After the movie, Marc, Mike and I went over to the Candlelight for some much missed late night wings. I haven't had these in over a month, probably the longest since I moved back to NY a couple of years ago and now that I've moved to Illy, I shall have to wait at least this long in between for runs to the Light. We split a large order of extra hot wings and fries with mozzarella and gravy. Mmmmmmm. And of course, we had to order an extra bowl of bleu cheese. So great. I did contemplate ordring the buffalo sandwich and/or jalapeno poppers as well, but I thought this was enough for this trip back home.

Now, on my list of things to eat while visiting NY: a plain bagel with cream cheese and a slice. Hopefully, I can get both of those done tomorrow before I head back on the road, I'll keep yous updated.

Going Home

I'm headed back to NY this weekend for the first time since I've moved down here to Illy. It's Father's Day and I'm gonna be a good son and make the trek, all 2 hours of it. It's funny, with Illy being so close to NY how I never even took a day trip here or something. I always bypassed it right to DC all 3 years I went to school at American. The only time I spent any time in Illy while I was in college was one time when I thought it would be a bright idea to go through Illy somehow to avoid traffic on the NJ Turnpike or something. I forget the logic behind it, but there was some at the time. I remember ending up somewhere close to a Broad St exit, but I don't recall exactly where.

It will be weird going home for the first time. I haven't seen Mom & Dad in over a month after living with them for the 2 years since I left DC. I'm gonna go back to the same room I've slept in for the past 2 years on that same bed. I think I'm thinking too much into it, but I do know that things will be different, I hope for the better. I know I'm gonna turn in to my packrat-ish self and haul a bunch of things back with me to Illy, but I will try to keep it to a minimum.

Also on the trip, I'll see James & Kelli's new place in Jersey. They moved right after I did, into a larger place to accomodate for the growing fam. And of course, I'll see everyone's favorite, Justin. All of you have seen the pics of him and I'm sure I'll take some more this weekend for all of you to enjoy. But I don't know if he'll ever top that pic of him wearing the Hulk Hands on his little arms, stretched above his head. That one takes the gold. But in many ways, he's cooler now, with the whole talking thing. "He's a jokester," James says. When I spoke to Justin on the phone earlier this week, he said, "I made something for you uncle dragonballyee... a Power Ranger" and then he gave the phone back to my brother. Will he be as funny as me? Let's not get ahead of ourselves on the comedic ladder of family dragonballyee.

So, I'm not sure if I'll post between now and when I leave and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a signal back in White Plains, but we'll see. I am off, on my little journey. Unlike the photo above, I know which way I'll be going. Cool shot though, eh? It was taken from the Chestnut St Bridge. On the left is a path where bikers/joggers/walkers/skaters... do their thing and on the right is a set of tracks, are they still in use? Dunno. I didn't see a train on them for the 15 minutes I was there. But the view of the walkway down to the tracks/path from across the river is pretty cool, it zig zags down a bit and meets with a similar walkway from the next bridge north of it. I'll head back there and snap a photo one of these days.