Wha' happened?

Wha' happened, indeed. I'll tell you wha' happened: Vegas happened, baby, and damn I am sweet.

Now that I've got the hubris out of the way, let's get down to bidness, starting with last Thursday:

Thursday, after work and a quick change at home, it was off to Whitlow's to meet with my friend Jodi and her clique. It was Mug Night, where you buy a mug (or bring one from a previous Mug Night) and get to drink cheap mugs of beer until 11:00 for $1.50. (That's pronounced "a buck fiddy.") Though no novice drinker I, I did make the cardinal mistake of not eating anything before I started with the drinking. Instead, I proceeded to down cheap beer and be remarkably social. Even when my one connection to the group there left (that would be Jodi, duh), I stuck around with her friends. It was a solid evening, even with the Tar Heels shitting the bed in a major way on the televisions. Anyway, many beers (plus digits) later, I proceeded home, making it back into my place 11:30ish. After some fumbling and stumbling, I promptly passed out in my shower. Yes, for those who know my sordid past, this is the second time that's happened. This time, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning, where I hastily packed my suitcase for the Philadelphia trip. After some speed packing and a set alarm, I was back into the black. In a very short period of time (though, it honestly felt longer), some fine classical music informs me that it is 8:00. So I'm back up, finish the packing, get myself scrubbed up a little, dress, and await my ride, Mr. and Mrs. O, who (as stated previously) are also going up to Illadelph. 'Round 9:30 or so (bad traffic, don'tcha know), my chariot arrives, and it's time to get on the road.

Being the generous people they are, the O's provided the breakfast of champions--Dunkin Donuts--which I was able to get down with no ill-effects. Then, at some point during our ride up, we decide to stop at A&W (I believe this is in Delaware). Mmmmmm...corn dog nuggets. (And in my case, a cheeseburger as well.) If your stomach is aching just reading this, imagine how I felt. I got it in me, we load into the car, and we're on our way again. Some time later (don't know exactly how long, as I wasn't really watching the clock), my ass is being dropped off in front of the hotel where I will be setting up fort for the weekend.

Quickly through some mundane details: check-in, unpack, chill briefly, go out for walk, bump into the O's within 2 blocks of my hotel, then proceed to just walk about, occasionally ducking into a store for warmth or genuine interest in commerce. A few hours later, I'm back in my hotel room.

Now, the reason I'm in Philadelphia is to meet my friend Monica (aka the Left-Coast Stalker). The short-version on Monica and her role in the DVX universe: in 2000, shortly after the election, I posted a caption for a picture on this website. With my caption, I include my Geocities website (in one of its earliest incarnations). Some time later (not exactly sure how long), I get a random email from a girl in L.A. who says she liked my caption and checked out my site and was connecting to my rant on the job search (this is when I was about a year into my temp work). For some reason, I did not discount her email as spam and a few days later, actually responded. From that, some steady correspondence began and a very solid friendship developed. But now I'm starting to prattle, so let's just fast forward three years and a cross-country move later (she's originally from Jersey and currently lives in Philly), we decide to meet after I make some noise about needing to get away for a weekend.

Back in Philly: Monica and I finally set up a time to meet (she's working). So I cool out for a couple of hours, then it's cab time. Her place of bidness is closed, but her co-worker (I assume under her instruction) let's me in and there you go: first meeting. We exchange pleasantries, I crack some jokes, give the premises the once over, and, after she finishes up some work, we head out the door for dinner. Our destination: Gianna's Grille. Dinner is delicious and conversation is pleasant. From there, we're off to South Street for some music shopping. First stop: Repo Records. The purchases: Acid Mothers Temple Magical Power From Mars, Pixies Complete 'B' Sides, and Prefuse 73 Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives. Next up: Spaceboy Music. Picked up here: Ephel Duath The Painter's Palette and Ruins Hyderomastgroningem. Coming right after that, we go to 4th Street, where I hit Cue Records. The roundup here: RJD2 Your Face Or Your Kneecaps and Mr. Dibbs The 30th Song. We did go to one more place after that, but I found nothing there. (It was Noise Pollution, which is right next door to Cue.) I really wish I had gone to the Relapse Records store. Oh well. Next time.

From there, we're off to her place, where we basically just chill out, watch a little Adult Swim (on tape), and then I'm off since she's got to be at work at ungodly hour o'clock in the morning.

(What? Oh. Ha! Suckers. I know what you were expecting. For your information, she's very happily taken already. Jebus, what's wrong with you?)

Back to the hotel, watch some tv, then I'm out like a light.

Saturday: wake up a little after nine all intent on getting some room service, then, working in a hotel, remember how the smallest dishes eventually wind up ridiculously over priced. So I check out the food listings in the Philadelphia Weekly and Philadelphia City Paper and finally decide on going to the Marathon Grill. Egg sammich? Check. Bowl of fruit? Check. OJ? Check. Then I take a walk, eventually finding my way to where Monica was working on Saturday (diff location), so's I could gauge how long I would have to leave the hotel before meeting her after work. After some more walking about, I go back to the hotel room, where I watch North Carolina redeem themselves by beating UVA. Soon after, it's time to break out to meet up with Monica. We meet up, and our destination is one of the big highlights of the trip: The Mutter Museum.

I'll spare you the horrifying and hilarious details of the museum and will just say that if you're in Philadelphia any time soon that you should really check it out.

From there, it's more walking around the city, including a stop in Nuts To You, mostly because I love the name, and also because Monica hilariously proclaimed they have "really cheap nuts." We also hit a comic book/collectibles store, where Monica picked up a reduced-for-quick-sale Lego Green Goblin, a female Transformer (who didn't Transform) and this Keyop action figure. As for myself, I picked up a Badtz-Maru plush. Solid. We then rolled back to my hotel for some chilling out and also to make plans for the night. We reduce it to two choices: Rock Tits at The Khyber or The Muppet Movie Sing-a-long. Undecided, we come to the conclusion that it's time for more foodstuffs, so we go back to Gianna's. We get the food to go and head to her place just a couple of blocks away. We set into our dinners, threw in more Adult Swim and just relaxed. Unfortunately, Monica started to feel ill (not to mention she was sleepy from having to wake up so damn early), so we bagged plans. I admit I was (only)slightly disappointed that we didn't go back out, but we still enjoyed the evening. First, we popped in MST3K (Mitchell!), then we watched A Mighty Wind. I rolled out of there after that movie ended, got back to the hotel, and crashed again. (Well, after a bit more TV watching, and no, I do not mean hotel porn. Shit, ain't no way I'm about to pay $13 for hotel-edited porno.)

Sunday morning: wake up, clean myself, pack things, call Mr. O to set up departure plans, then call Monica to see if she wants to join me for breakfast before I have to leave. She agrees, and after talking with Mr. O some more, we all wind up going to Li'l Pete's for some delicious eggs benedict. (Mr. O had already polished off some take-out eggs benedict from LP earlier that morning, so he just chilled mit beverage.) Apres breakfast, we walk to Mr. O's car, drop off Monica, and then it's back on the road. Now several hours (filled with sleep and wrestling--go Benoit!--and video games), I'm blogging.

I have to say I had a really great weekend. We both agreed that it was like we'd been hanging out for much longer than we had. And I know those reading may find it dull that there was little city exploration and an odd amount of television, but I gotta say, my only plan was to hang out with Monica and pick up some music. That's a 100% success rate in my book. Illness was an unscheduled bump, but really didn't interfere with fun-making. Plus, I'll be back up there again. It's close enough and cheap enough (especially with my work connections) that a weekend jaunt is very easy to make with little preparation. So I can always do more city exploration in the future.

And there you have it. Konichiwa, bitches.