Entry tags:

philly, vanity, weekend

I love the City of Brotherly Love
Maaaaaan, I wrote a massive missive (heh) about this weekend and then realized how dull it must seem to anyone who isn't me. I will still post it (lj-cut, of cuss), but this is the condensed version.

In a nutshell, I rode the Chinatown bus down to Phila this last weekend and met up with three of my favorite boys. The 307 Pine house felt like home right away, which set the heart of this recent transplant at ease. I like it when I go into a place and immediately feel comfortable, you know, like when I was offering tasty beverages to other guests as a guest. Repeatedly during the weekend I mentioned to everyone how happy it made me to have found a group of people so in line with my lifestyle. I thought it way more often than I said it out loud, and I said it out loud a LOT.

I feel really lucky to have stumbled into a group of people who are kind, hilarious, ribald, thoughtful, creative, and a bucket of fun. What did I do this weekend? I played Cranium and Trivial Pursuit, walked a trillion miles in the gorgeous city sunshine, foolishly wore lots of green totally on accident, hung out in parks and alleys, invented "Black and White" cupcakes (and made El Gigantor out of half the batter), cooked with friends for friends, stayed up way way way too late repeatedly, shared my bed with two dudes (SCANDAL!), went down the shore, walked the boardwalk, got airplane spun by Ben, airplane spun Sean, played mini-golf (putt-putt), roughhoused, ate the best home-friend potatoes in all of creation, made friends with strange dogs, sang songs loudly in the car with the windows open, aaaaaaaaaaaayed at passing cars, got breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, punched butterflies, learned about projection booths, told bad jokes, laughed more than I have in weeks, cut promos, and fell a little bit more in love with Philadelphia.

I took a lot of pictures and I like them a lot. I watched them over and over again after I came home because all I wanted was to be back there. Keep reading to see most of them.

I arrived late at night on Friday but we went out to celebrate Tami's last day of work anyway. Afterward, back at 307, Artie went to bed and the other boys and I hung out. Hey look! Ben's going to show me something on the teevee. I suppose this is a good time to mention that Ben is totally a bitch about me taking his picture, so most of the photos I have of him were taken, at least partially, against his will.


Oooooh. That's what we're doing. We're watching a wrestling video game. Ben and Sean have spent countless hours making custom characters for their friends so that they can wrestle one another. SO. FUNNY. Is it bad to cheer on a video game that's being controlled by the computer? There was some seriously hilarious action in the ring, I'm telling you.


There is a weight bench in the living room of 307 Pine which I used to pump iron every night. You think I'm joking. Heather loves to lift, remember that. So at one point, no doubt due in part to the late hour, Sean decided to hang off the bar. He is SO LONG AND STRONG that he doesn't fit in one frame (at least not when I'm taking a picture from the nearby futon). These are his legs.


And this is the rest of him! I made him stay there a long time so I'm pretty sure all of the blood in his entire body was in his face at this point.


Hey guess what? We're tired! It's late! Look at how tired we are! I can't tell if Ben's avoiding the photo here or if he's just really knackered. A little of both, I suppose.


Sean snapped the previous photo and this one and MAN are neither of them very flattering. But, meh, whatever. It makes me laugh that my horns are practically popping out of the screen to stab you. Even when I'm exhausted, I like to ROCK!


The futon upstairs is...fairly imbalanced. When it's laying flat like this you can't really hang out on one side of it unless you have someone else balancing you out on the other side. Ben figured this out, as you can see. Also, check the absolutely magnificent Punisher fleece quilt that Artie's sister made him. I was thisclose to sneaking it into my backpack. SO COOL.


The next morning we went to the Pourhouse to have breakfast with Manning and Tami. I swear to the heavens, these people serve the best freakin potatoes in the world. Also, the waitress listened to me when I told her to bring me "more orange juice than you bring Artie." Tami is holding up a banana pancake which looks suspiciously like the Rebel Alliance symbol.


And this? This is one thing I love about Philly. Polka-dot houses! Look at how beautiful they are, all squished together and brightly painted. Seriously, I don't know how anyone can ever be sad in Philadelphia with stuff like this hanging around every corner. DEAR NON-MEDICAL PUBLISHING HOUSES, PLEASE OPEN OFFICES IN PHILLY SO I CAN LIVE THERE.


What IS sad is the Italian market. I mean, it's great and all, but then you walk by the live-animal-purchase-and-slaughter-house. There are rabbits and chickens and goodness knows what else locked up in these teeny cages and they're all a little bit nervous because JEEEEZ they're gonna be hacked up as soon as someone pays enough money. I wanted to run past opening all the cages, but I curbed my PETA instinct and just took this sad, sad picture. I'm sorry, chickens.


Hey Artie! Ben is going to smash that bigass chunk of ice on your punkin head!


I think Artie looks vaguely robotic in this photo and I'm not quite sure why. Also, maaaaan that ice was dirty. Gross.


This is proof that Sean tried to sabotage my cupcakes by putting baking soda instead of baking powder in them. Little did he know that Black and White cupcakes can suffer all kinds of indignities and still come out on top! What do I love about this photo? I love how SUPER intense both of them are on their tasks. Artie is about three seconds away from saying, "SEAN JUST USE A REGULAR MEASURING SPOON ALREADY!"


RT baking! Those little suckers are HOT. We both burnt our fingers a little when pulling them out of the tin, but we had to keep moving; we were a cupcake making factory.


Artie is proud of his beautiful almost-muffin-like vegan cupcakes (banana and almond flavor -- delicious).


Ben, proving that the Black and White cupcakes were SO delicious he could eat one in a single bite.


A few of the cupcakes. Artie's vegan banana bonanzas are on the right and the Black and Whites are on the left there. I used chocolate milk instead of regular in the batter and OH MAN what a good choice. The Gigantor Cupcake is the result of not wanting to fill those little tins again and instead filling a small Corningware bowl with the remaining batter. The boys ate it for breakfast after I left, which makes me happy. Cupcakes are TOTALLY a valid breakfast.

HOT CRAB DIP!

These boys are into pro-wrestling which means that they have good taste as far as I'm concerned. But I haven't watched wrestling since I was wee and I don't know the names of things. This? This is the beginning of the Boston Crab. Ben stormed into Artie's room on Saturday morning and woke him up with one. I asked for a demonstration later so Artie got to administer it this time.


There was lots of me shouting, "ARTIE! GIVE BEN YOUR HOT CRAB DIP!" How could he not comply?


I love Artie's mean face here, and I love how it looks like Ben is sleeping peacefully. Hot Crab DipBoston Crab complete.


The next day we took a trip to the shore! Ben has pretty-pretty princess hair! Look at his stylish assortment of clips. He tried to shake them out after I took this photo but I'm a freakin ninja and had them out as quickly as I had them in.


'Member how I said Ben doesn't like me to take his picture? He really doesn't. This was me holding the camera out and him zooming his face toward it as quickly as possible in an effort to ruin the shot. Instead, I find it really awesome how totally miniature his hand and (vegan) cupcake look when compared to his zoomy head. It almost doesn't even look like that's his body driving the car. Also, BEN, PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD, YA JERK!


Heather and Sean in the car on the way to the shore. We are too cute for you.


One of Ben's interests is "jumping off the boardwalk," which both he and Sean promptly did. Sean went first and crumpled like a ragdoll upon hitting the sand. Um, sand is not fluffy in winter. Ben fared better with warning. It turns out that Sean totally effed up his foot and is the mega-trooper of the day for sticking it out with us despite the screaming pain in his heel. They are doing their best to not whinge as they climb back over the railing onto the boardwalk.


Artie cruising the beach, looking to score some hookers or maybe blow.


Ben, walking determinedly to his watery grave. Those seagulls don't care one bit. Also, look at that water! I love open bodies of water in the wintertime.


This breakwater was the shiz. I didn't end up walking out all the way because some of those rocks were insanely slippery and after one too many comical slow-mo arm-windmills, I turned back for the beach. Good thing, too, because hey! Look what's next!


Contrary to how it might appear, Artie is not kicking Ben's ass here. Instead, Ben is giving Artie an airplane spin (another wrestling move).


And I got an airplane spin, too! Let me give you my rendition of what I sounded like at this point: "Hahahahahahahahahhahahahahah!" Man, I would not shut up. But it's just so much fun! And weird! Also, really high up. Ben is tall.


This is me, post airplane spin, still giggling like a jackass. I yam very dizzy!


We found an open miniature golf course on the boardwalk and Sean bought us all a round. Right here you can see my three favorite kids playing putt-putt. Artie is eating the scorecard.


On one hole we realized that if you shot your ball into one special slot it'd come shotting out of this snake's...boner? So Sean scurried over and attempted to catch the ball in his mouth. When Artie actually managed to hit the ball into the special slot (I'LL HIT MY BALLS IN YOUR SPECIAL SLOT!), everyone started shouting for Sean to get out of the way lest he ruin the hole-in-one. Doesn't he look forlorn?


This monkey...man, I just don't get it. It was wearing a really sad, faded grass skirt and had this tattered straw hat dangling from it's arm on a string. Ben, of course, had to wear it, because what else do you do with a chipped plaster monkey's shabby hat?


After mini golf (Artie won, I came in second), we went into an arcade. Now this? This takes me right back. This is Ben and Sean playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2. I spent a lot of the last few years watching/hearing about MvC2, you know. MvC2 is part of the reason that I met these clowns this summer (thank you, East Coast Regionals). The game was stuck on some sort of free play mode and they got bored of it pretty quickly.


Skee-Ball! Only ten cents! I wanted to play but Ben had to get back to work so I settled for taking this picture of my three favorite boys (again). Also, Artie, pull up your damn pants, boy.


This is the part of the boardwalk where M&Ms spring up from the ground.


This is the part of the boardwalk where Sean and Artie go ape smashing said M&Ms. Seriously, those little chocolate candies had it coming.


I like it when people walk all together in a line (only when it's not blocking other walkers, of course, but we're talking about a nearly-deserted boardwalk here) and they all cast shadows together. It feels so movie. In a sneakyninja attack, I tried to get this shot by shooting from the hip. It really isn't as good as it might've been, but I still like it.

Words of the weekend:
sculptadores ("sculpt-a-doh-rays" -- as in "fah-hoo forays, sculptadores")
sculptorades ("sculpt-oh-rah-deez" -- a revolutionary workout system developed by Vincent Sculptorades)
grubbin

Songs of the weekend:
"I Love Little Girls" by Oingo Boingo
"Mr. Grieves" by the Pixies
"Motorcycle Song" by Arlo Guthrie

Artie's post * Sean's post * Ben's post (I keed -- Ben never posts on LJ)