life update and stuff

[mrlich]

Wednesday Night (February 14th, 2007 : V-Day):
We didn't do the most standard "Valentine's Stuff". We enjoyed some dinner snuggled up on the floor and watched The Rundown starring the Rock. You laugh, but it sure as hell felt like a perfect night to me.

Thursday Night (February 15th, 2007): This week I start my weekend on Thursday. Not because I took off work or anything. It just started to feel like a weekend on Thursday. I got to have some good relax time with xtingu and I started to unwind. Work has been a little stressfull as late. Not in a standard way, but since the work load is light, there's a lot of confusion over what the priority items should be. Since the boss doesn't seem to know what needs to be the focus, he'll start me in one direction and then redirect me 20 minutes later after I've finally started to make some forward progress.

It's amazing how quickly I slip out of that chaos when I'm around llij. As most of you know she's just so damn fun and creative as hell. I don't realize what a benefit that is to me sometimes, so I thought that it bore witnessing here. Thanks babe.

Friday Night (February 16th, 2007): My buddy Jason came into town from LA and Quito, xtingu, and myself headed up to join J, kar0na, and metikulos for some dinner and good chit chat. I could do with some more of that sort of thing. Afterward, the Tres Amigos de Delaware headed to my folks' place to sack out for the night. Thanks to the always awesome hospitality of my folks there were warm beds with clean sheets waiting for us even though we arrived in the wee hours of the morning.

Saturday (February 17th, 2007): After a great night's rest, we all woke up, got ready and joined my folks, Krishna and Margaret, and Jason at the local Perkins. Mom mentioned pancakes the day before and as soon as it left her mouth, I started craving their baked goods. It's an addiction really. Our waitress was an older woman that I remember having worked with a few times a million years ago when I worked at that restaurant as a server. She proved to be an interesting individual, and made breakfast entertaining as well as filling.

Shortly after breakfast, the three of us headed back down to De. in order to make certain that we would be in town in enough time to greet our buddy Wes when he got into town from Pittsburgh. When he arrived, we gave him about 3.7 seconds before we dropped him back into a car in order for the four of us to race up into Old City Philadelphia in order to make our 6pm reservation at the Continental with the addition of Spex, Russ, and Renee. Dinner was great, though I have to say that I found the friendship, conversation, and comraderie the diving factor behind my pleasure. The food, while very tasty, seemed overpriced for what it was. I know that a large portion of the price is location, ambiance, etc., but I don't place much stock in these things. Give me a fine meal in Eastern Guam, and it's still a fine meal.

After the Continental, we headed to the portion of the evening that I had planned for the group. Several of the meetup.com groups that I'm signed on for all mentioned the grand opening of the "Fortress of the Arts" in Philadelphia this weekend. It was to start at 7pm on Saturday, and I had been planning on going for a long time...

...crap. The boss needs me to go to Tom's River NJ. Guess I'll have to finish this update later. :(

edit - here's the rest:

The event description made this event nearly unavoidable for me. It sounded like the beginning of something big. It sounded like it was the start of a new movement in (what could become) a Philadelphia art rennaisance. I bought into it hook, line, and sinker.

Impressive part is that it might have been exactly that. It's really hard to tell because it's so new.

The down side was that it seemed almost certainly too early to have opened their doors to the public. The space is grand - of that there can be no doubt. Four stories of stairs were a bit rough to traverse without proper light though. You found yourself wondering the whole time "Is this really the place? Am I sure that I'm supposed to be here?" In some neighborhoods, that's not a problem. In some places, if you're not where you're supposed to be, the residents are likely to politely just redirect you with little more damage than a bruised ego on your behalf. I think that it's safe to say that a large portion of our little group didn't think that would be the case here. The neighborhood seemed less than friendly.

That's the down side. Flip the coin, and you have a lot of really neat stuff. The crowd was eclectic and varied. There were photographers and oil painters. There were musicians and textile collage artists. The space was gritty and old-warehousey. It was sexy as hell. It felt good and raw. It felt like art is supposed to feel like. It wasn't froofy or snobby. You just knew that you could walk up to any person in the room and have a conversation about anything you wanted and they wouldn't so much as look cross-eyed at you. Artists all around the room were happily starving. What do I mean? I mean they hadn't sold out. They were doing what they wanted to be doing, and they were willing to sacrifice what they needed to in order to do it. It made me want to belong there. It made me think of the potential of the future of the place. It made me imagine the sorts of change and improvement that could come as a result of such a place - and such a group.

As we went to leave, the band that was playing apparently needed just a touch too much electric for their gear. They blew the fuse that was also linked to the string of unshielded light bulbs that had been dangled down the stairwell. I took the lead as we all whipped out our trusty cell phones/emergency flashlights and made our way down.

I felt bad about getting the group to go. It was a rough neighborhood. It was not what I think they were expecting (it certainly wasn't what I was expecting). And lastly, I don't think that most of them got out of it what I did.

But I'm glad we went. I want to pay close attention to my newly beloved Fortress. I think that the very near future will tell the tale of the place. I think that what happens next is something I may want to have a part in, and that I will (at least) watch with earnest interest.

After the Fortress, we headed back to Old City. The kids wanted to relax a little and have a couple drinks. We found ourselves at a downright beautiful little place called Bookbinder's. The drinks were delightful, the friends moreso, and it seemed a great way to wind down the Philly portion of the night.

When we had finished our drinks at Bookbinder's, we decided against our side plan to go to Atlantic City in deference to returning to Delaware. We said goodbye to Renee and headed homeward. There was talk of cards, but I figured once we were home we would wind up just bedding down for the night.

Not so.

The always fun Russ was our 'box man' and teacher in the game of roulette(ed. note: I'm an idiot. Q pointed out to me that we played CRAPS not roulette). The boys (at this point it was Quito, Spex, Wes, and Russ) quickly put together a rudimentary roulette table, and Russ showed us what was what, with Spex adding input where needed. I had never played before and found the game to be a lot of fun.

Four-thirty in the morning came way too fast. We all hit the sack, and I'm pretty sure I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Sunday (February 18th, 2007): I woke late to find Quito and Wes downstairs playing arcade classics on the x-box. It felt like home. After inviting them to join us, I headed out to meet xtingu at the Golden Monkey for some fuel and to start life returning to 'normal'. Coffee, diner grub, and a pretty girl? You can't beat that for the start to your day. It's just not possible.

We went to her place for some post breakfast putsing around and then did something that has become a bit of a ritual with us. There really is nothing like a movie at home. I'm convinced that it's therapeutic. Some Jing Fong grub and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby with the rockin girlfriend and I'm a happy camper.

That's my weekend in review, and if you made it this far? You're a saint.