The Liberty Bell

I went to Philadelphia this past weekend with D to look at D's cousin's new baby. I hadn't met D's cousin, nor am I particularly interested in babies, so I had low expectations for the weekend.

Luckily, D's cousins - I met three that I hadn't met before - are all wonderful. They also have wonderful signficant others. I looked at the baby for about three seconds and spent the remainder of the time being jealous of D's cousin's new house. This, of course, precipitated fantasies involving my former employer's going public after last week's good news, and then perusal of Craigslist for awesome lofts in Brooklyn that I will never be able to own.

On our way to the house in the morning, there was discussion of what to do about lunch. D's cousin decided that we should order pizza, and asked me what sort of pizza I liked. "Whatever," I said, "As long as there is no meat." "So you like pizza with vegetables on it?" "Yep," I said. Of course they ordered me a pizza with mushrooms on it. D said "OH NO!" because he knows about my anti-mushroom sentiments. Luckily D's cousin's husband, who is brilliant and an avid conspiracy-theorist, picked the mushrooms off for me! What a good host, and how nice of them not to say "Your vegetarian girlfriend is so high maintenance!"

We spent the afternoon touring the house and chatting about various conspiracies involving September 11th. Well, I spent the afternoon talking conspiracy while everyone else changed the baby and discussed the baby's habits and observed the baby sleeping. At one point a bunch of us were hanging out in the bathroom upstairs, and it occurred to me that more people can fit in their bathroom than can fit in my entire apartment. Seriously. There were eight of us in there plus the baby, and it felt spacious.

After looking at the baby had concluded, we headed into Philadelphia where D caved in and consented to our getting our very own hotel room! instead of staying in a room with all of the cousins, which would have involved two grown people, who have jobs and plenty of money to rent their own hotel room, sleeping on the floor.

I love hotels. I love the feeling of vacation. I love staying in a place where I am taken care of. I love space. I love the giant bed. And, most importantly these days, I love the TV!!! While D and his cousins drank cocktails in the other hotel room, I said "Umm... I think I am going to stay behind and... umm... do my hair before we go out," but in reality I watched Made on MTV! I haven't seen that show in over a year! I couldn't decide what to watch. It was sensory overload. News? Videos? Reality shows? Documentaries? The options are endless!!!

When I'd felt sufficiently guilty about watching MTV and after I'd actually tended to my hair, we walked around the city and ended up at Jones for dinner. I got an orange creamsicle martini, potato pancakes, and an awesome avocado sandwich. We then walked around the city a bit more.

We walked by The Liberty Bell. "It's smaller than I thought it would be," I said. Someone said "Has it always been cracked or is that a recent thing?" Nobody knew. It then occurred to me that I didn't know anything about The Liberty Bell other than the fact that it is in Philadelphia. I didn't know if it was commissioned to specifically represent liberty, I didn't know where it came from, when it came from, nothing. I thought for a while, and finally decided that I'd just ask. Embarassing, yes, but I had to know. I said "Does anyone know, like, what the deal is with the liberty bell?" Rather than saying "D, your ignorant girlfriend is so annoying!" they all said "Umm...."

Nobody knew.

Awesome.

(I do have an excuse, though. I have been cursed with the worst American History teachers imagineable. I have basal knowledge from 4th grade, but beyond that I've never been taught a thing about US History. I never even learned the US capitols. My 8th grade teacher, Mr. F, mumbled. Nobody could understand him. On top of being a mumbler, he was a whisperer, to the point where he'd ask a question and nobody would even know that he'd asked a question and then he'd be cross with us and we wouldn't know why. I think this frustrated him, so rather than teach, Mr. F opted to have us read from the textbook in groups. He'd then pass out questions on paper, and we'd answer them. Basically, in 8th grade, co-ed groups of kids reading textbooks is not going to encourage learning as much as early disasters in flirting. My 11th grade US History teacher, Mr. M, was equally terrible. I think he taught, in the traditional sense, 2% of the time. With the rest of the time, he'd talk about the Italian influence on US History and how Italians have been oppressed in the US and when he wasn't doing that, he'd look at girls' legs or breasts and say things like "I like tall women" and when he wasn't doing that, he'd have us watch a movie. I learned things in that class - about the world, about men, about current events, but nothing about US History. I bought "Don't Know Much About History" and started reading it a few year's back, but it was daunting since I literally know nothing about history.)

We didn't go out for drinks because people were tired, which meant more TV for me! I watched Trading Spaces, which I'd never seen before. Bliss.

I spent Sunday afternoon with NR. We ate and shopped and then went to the art museum, which was awesome. I've been to Philly many times but had never been to the art museum.

I headed back on a delayed Amtrak train, tried to watch a movie but was distracted, so ended up doing a couple projects before D showed up. We tried to put together Legos, but about five frustrating minutes and ten missing pieces later, I said "Wait. I don't think that these directions are the right directions for this TIE Fighter." We have no idea where the real directions are, but will try to improvise when we next have time, which will be never.

It was a good weekend.

And it's almost the weekend again.

Awshummmmm.