Philadelphia, PA -> Kennet Square, PA

And on the last day...

The morning had a vital agenda item. Food. I woke up tired and hungry but with a promising offer of food and conversation from my fiend Sadie. Sadie works at an esteemed sandwich shop in The Gayborhood. I walked over. She said hello, thrusted a sandwich at me, and attempted to chat in between helping customers. I thought they were busy for a Sunday. She said that insanity was situation normal at this shop and that we should meet up after work. I walked to a nearby park to enjoy the tasty live giving treat and discovered that she had put the name of the orderer as Shell, an old freshman year nickname of mine. That took me back. Halfway through my sandwich Max buzzed through the park on a bicycle. It feels good to know enough people in a place to be seeing them on accident. A chat and he was back on his way to a film shoot.

I walked to Dilworth Park, to see Arielle skate at the pop up roller rink there. Philly is built up on a grid with city hall set in the center. It is a square acting almost like a traffic circle in the middle of the grid. It almost feels like it is on an island. The beach of this island is Dilworth Park. You may remember Arielle from my second post and find it strange to hear a name from Pasadena in Philadelphia. The two of us met in college at Drexel and she wound up flying out to spend time with her friends and family. An avid skater, she brought her quads with her to try out this rink. I watched Arielle and her two sisters enjoy the rink as best they could, the surface was horrible, and set off to a tea house for lunch. Ethan and I grabbed a table for six and began to order. Soon enough, Arielle, her sisters, and three others joined us. Table for six, seating for eight. Loud, friendly, fun.

Buzzing with pu-erh I biked to Jackson's house to revive an old tradition. I have a band called Pragmatic Pancakes (Shameless Plug) which exists solely as an outlet for me to release musical nonsense. Jackson has been behind the most well-produced sessions and he wanted to make something with me while I was in town. Flying in the face of what is good for the world I relented and found myself in his home studio jamming out a single. Three hours or so of tracking session and Sadie walked in with a pie to join us for the end of our evening. We walked to a famed old Philly bar, Bob and Barbara's. This is a legendary dive on South Street with good cash only prices and a great music tradition. The only dive you'll ever see with a Hammond B3 in the back. After catching up and some citywides, we walked down South Street to grab a slice of pizza. We realized that we had gotten all the way to ten o'clock without eating dinner.

With our slices we met Arielle and Arfan on South who took us back to his place for a much needed bathroom break. While there we also got to meet his parents. Two lovely people and his mom makes a mean cheesecake cupcake. I lived with Arfan for some time and I can see where he got his love of baking from. Arielle took me to Ethan's to grab my things (in a car!) and whisked me away in quiet and comfort to her family's home in Kennet Square. After the guard dog's approval, I took my rest.

A Skeptic