Philadelphia, PA (Day 1)

So many years on, I think I have more close friends in Philadelphia than I do in Thousand Oaks and Santa Barbara combined. I lived in Philly on and off for a little over a year. Between TO and SB it must have been around twenty. People scatter funny I guess. As a consequence of the high concentration of friendly people in the area, yesterday I partook in a (nearly) all-beer diet. That contributed to posting in the morning instead of the evening. I anticipate this occurring more regularly.

Ethan and I got a late start. Me more so than him, he's a working man and I'm a vagabond. We carried in late breakfast (brunch? lunch?) from a local cafe and I set out. A quick walk and I was at my friend Jackson's house. Jackson, another school friend, lived the pandemic life to the fullest over the last year. Before lockdown started he was tending bar at a local dive. Once that became outlawed he switched from dives to endives. Well, carrots actually. He worked on a farm for a while but has more recently found himself back behind a desk doing sound design for games. After he regaled me with tales of his heroin-dealing neighbor (oddly enough in a nice part of town) we walked to a local dive. Philly style service again. We got to watch the woman who owned the bar yell at her bartender, who was also her daughter, who was also drunk. A truly Philly experience. We drank tall glasses of Kenzinger and as we were finishing, Jackson greeted the old man sitting next to us. The gentleman, Bob, was a regular of the bar Jackson worked at. He was apparently one of three regular Bobs. All old, white, heavyset, quiet, and light beer drinkers. This Bob was darts Bob, he threw a mean game back before the pandemic. Bud Light in bottles only, anything else or he would leave. Bob bought us another round, thank you Bob. We walked back to Jackson's place where we drunkenly played with his cat Frankie, short for Ben Franklin. It seems as though one of everything is named for him in this city.

Ben (hungry for toes) and Jackson (not)

He dropped me off in East Kensington for my next stop, Lauren. Lauren and I had matched on Tinder around four years ago and have remained pen-pals ever since. I think that's the longest time I've gone from connecting with someone to actually meeting them in real life. Part of the fun of the internet. We tried to talk while her dog, Achilles found specks of dust to bark at. He's a real character. A rondez-vous with Ethan at a brewery and it was time to head home, grab dinner, and call it a day.

Achilles (sniffing dirt) and Lauren (not)