The City of Brotherly Stray Cats

A fun time was had by all in Brooklyn this weekend. I am now back in the city that (as I told Luke this weekend) alternately smells like fresh baked bread or dog shit (depending on the way the wind blows). I felt a surge of fondness for Philadelphia as the train was pulling closer to the skyline. It's the underdog of American cities. It's dirty, difficult and politically flawed but it's also friendly, manageable and chock-ful of happy dogs (on average, I am able to pet at least two dogs per day on my walk to the subway and have not once been bitten, though now, of course, you can expect to read about me being maimed by a pit bull since I just made that claim).

What did we do? We did these things and much more:

*Had coffee at Joyce's which contained 3 hipster moms and their fat burbling babies. One lady said, "I am such a bad mom! I gave him formula and then put him back down for another nap!" The other mothers all cooed their approval. I wanted to say, "Yes, and now he is startlingly obese."

*Helped Luke barter to get two pair of good shoes for $13 at a sidewalk sale.

*Completed almost all of the Sunday NY Times magazine crossword with only a little bit of cheating from with the Internet.

*Found and brought home a discarded book called, The Facts of Life. It contained very detailed pop-up photos of things you don't ever want to see that close up such as the vulva.

*Watched a documentary about mentally-handicapped people doing street interviews. It wasn't very interesting and the extra features turned out to be twice as long as the movie itself.

*Went to Beacon's Closet where Liz bought me a dress! She had a $50 credit there, but I didn't ever think she would use a portion of it on me--the dress was $15 which is a big chunk of that amount. It's really cute though--it's a Kimchi & Blue brand dress originally from Urban Outfitters. Black cotton back but the front is open knit...I can't describe it and I can't find a picture of it. You have to wear a full slip under it or else it will look like a bathing suit cover-up. I also bought a heart necklace and bird earrings.

*Ate dinner at Soda. I ordered a veggie burger that arrived on a gigantic bun. Mostly, I just ate Luke's chicken wings. Their actor friend Cathy came by and we took turns writing questions for one another to answer in my notebook. No one tried to pick us up. We walked back to L & L's apartment where I demanded that Liz cut my hair. She obliged, using her paper scissors and her plant spray bottle. I now have bangs (sort of).

*Used a free pass to go to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. I liked it much better than I thought I would, having had memories of being dragged through the Botanical Gardens as a kid. This time, we saw obscenely gigantic goldfish (a few were calico like Gretel), turtles, and cactus' with graffiti scratched onto their sturdy limbs.

*We didn't take one single photo but here is another picture of Celia's from our walk around Philadelphia. Please note that this is about four blocks from where I live if anyone would like to go with me some time. Cowboy hats required:

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