When in Rome

Here is the remainder of our days in Philly, most of which were spent retracing old routes and enjoying the familiarity of the city's bumpy streets, perfect skyline and friendly faces. With meals like roadsigns, we set out to capture not only the very best parts of our three year existence but added to it, the landscape of life in Philly now, in a whirlwind of five short days. It feels so GOOD to see your friends.

On the Things We Did In Philly Past side of things: getting tofu hoagies from Fu Wah, in West Philadelphia; drinking a Citywide Special over pool at Fiume on a Monday night; beers and dog watching in Clark Park; Sarcone's sandwiches (we saved these for the airport); Indian buffet at Sitar with the extended Gang; standing in line to buy 8 dollars worth of vital wheat gluten at Mariposa; a ride on the broad street line through city hall (shiver) to transfer to the Green Line; the walk for a case of Lion's head, complete with word puzzle bottle caps home from Salt & Pepper; taking my seat on the bench outside Via Bicycle to wait for John to fix our flat tire; the view from Sabrina's across Christian Street in the Italian market; talking with Sue in her bright sunny studio about every single thing; and the smile that crossed my face watching John and Ryan riding the tandem together, two peas in one pod.

And of the Philadelphia that postdates our move, we got to see a new apartment for Halimah and Larissa, while breakfasting on a fruit salad of melon and avocado and lots of toast and picking out clothes from Halimah's closet. We drank late night coffee at Starr Garden (that's that dark rectangle directly below) to refresh ourselves after jet-lag and barbeque at Brie and Sebastian's new house. We saw new workplaces for three friends at a restaurant, a gelateria and a storefront. We checked out Local 44, the new fancy gastropub in our neighborhood with a huge beer selection and a nice bartender.

This photo courtesy of Sue & her fancy new camera.

Can't say when we'll be back next, but I sure hope it's Soon.

Pooling

Never underestimate how happy a pool party will make you. Even if it's a bit of work and even if it requires a lot of prepping and even though you require a new bathing suit and the water's too cold and you don't actually like to swim. No matter what, you should get started planning one because truly, you will thank me later.

Our friend Halimah's parents, whose home is nestled in a nook out in Narberth, PA, have graciously allowed us to hold aquatic court at their home, in the form of pool parties, three years running. They always entail about a quarter tank of propane in grillable vegetarian products, badminton, ping pong and all the trimimings. This year, in honor of our annual (or so they say) visit, we piled into a fleet of automobiles (RIP to the Pony Pants band van, that held us all so cozily within you) and headed west to relax. By now perhaps you've guessed, it failed to disappoint.








Though we're not necessarily equipped to install an in-ground pool in our backyard, we're officially in the market for a ping pong table.

Happiness Is

Arriving in town amidst drizzle, being swept off your feet and whisked away to homestyle brunch and then lingering over coffee and watermelon mimosas, until you are escorted out back to see that the garden you left behind last summer is now exploding with tomatoes, cucumbers and perennials. Even the raining part was a welcome sight to those of us from drought country.





Our trip to Philly was a grand success. This is the tip of the iceberg.

Soundtrack: Philadelphia by Atom and his Package

Via Philadelphia

People out here ask me all the time, "Where are you from?"

It's a perfectly reasonable question, especially because here in San Francisco most of the residents have relocated from somewhere else. The concentration of the young, attractive, healthy and progressive is just too high for any natural urban evolution. We tend to flock here in droves, and so when people inevitably ask me the big question, I usually just say Wisconsin because it's shorter than the truth.

While Wisconsin is certainly where I was born, and where I was raised, and where I go when I'm going Home, the truth about where I am from is somewhat more hairy. I feel like I did a fair amount of growing up in New York State, where I went to school, in New York city, where I first learned to know a city, in St. Petersburg where I learned to go it alone and mostly, in Philadelphia, where I made my first permanent home.

These days there seems to be a great divide between the people I know who pick up and leave to travel the world and live out of some combination of a tote bag, a bicycle pannier and a backpack, and the people who go somewhere to stay, to sign a lease and build a life in a single place. While both have attractive qualities, I've always fallen quite softly into the latter group because of how happy I am to settle in. Knowing my neighbors, building a routine, hanging up curtains and learning the best parts of a city are things I count as blessings.

And yet, I have an eagerness to live in new places, which has now carried me into my fifth urban residence since high school. So when I'm asked where I'm from, I have such a compound sentence at the ready. "Well..." it always starts. "Wisconsin, via New York State via Philadephia."

My hybrid loyalties to both the nomads and the settlers has made this most recent move bittersweet. And this weekend we're headed to Philly and it will be my first visit since leaving that great city last August. A tiny part of me is nervous that I'll feel more at home while I'm there visiting that past-tense landscape than I do out here in California. It will be a good litmus test for me, to sort out my mix of feelings around our move to the west coast; the lingering regret over leaving a life we loved and the strength of conviction that we did the right thing, for the sake of the adventure. Change, I'm always reminding myself, is a good thing.



I'm excited beyond words for these next five days, whatever the result. I think I'll count happy visits back in the "Advantages to Moving" column of my pros and cons chart...or would if I had one of those.