"I'm spinning round the room in awe" ryan adams

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Weekend jaunt to Philly/DE

"Just a small town girl, livin’ in a lonely world. She took the midnight train goin’ anywhere" - Journey

I never hear that song, mostly because I don't really listen to the radio let alone classic rock stations, but I heard that song four times this weekend. So I consider it the theme song of the weekend.

I did go somewhere, and I didn't go at midnight. After work, I took the E train to Penn Station, missing the 6:30pm train to Philly by 4 minutes. Bummer, the next train wasn't until 7:30pm. I was so anxious to just head back to the Philly/DE area. Don't get me wrong, I love my new home, but still - I was excited to go back to old haunts and see old friends and just have a good time after my crazy hectic super busy week. Needless to day, an hour delay is not want I wanted to stand between me and Philadelphia. So I hit up the bathroom, couldn't find coffee, dropped my bags on some benches and called my mom. A few minutes into the conversation Chris B. called and entertained me for the next half hour while I waited for my train to arrive, thus making the best of my stranded situation.

Ten minutes before the station, I gathered my bags and headed towards the door. I was seriously anxious to get off the train. Epler picked me up at the station and I beleive I shouted how much I loved Philly when I emerged into the cold February air. He greeted me with coffee, an energy drink, and cookies and we were off to the Grape. I saw Cliff then John, then met up with the LDE guys back stage. It was so wonderful to see everyone. John finally met Chris and Phil after both parties were probably sick of me talking about how much I admire the other. Johnny then spilled beer into Donnie's drums stuff. Instead of being upset about his now wet and sticky drums, Donnie exclaimed sadness about his spilt beer.

The set was jam packed into about 45 minutes. Decent songs were chosen, though it did become a little flat. John seemed to be into it, which was good so I could actually live up to my claim. Epler and I caught the In the Water intro to Stranger, ending the set. Afterwards we hung out backstage. Phil and I having businessy and non businessy conversations and revealing indivisual inner thoughts. It was a bit eye opening as well as entertaining. I also blame Chris for breaking my iPod though it isn't his fault at all and my iPod works fine. And the girls on his desktop are so under the age of 16. Phil is my hero because he thinks of thngs that I do not and Chris and I both have ripped jeans. We rule. Fun times behind the stage at The Grape.

Dave and I drove back to Newark (after being cat called from the LDE van...yes, I heard that) and I was dropped off at Rainbow. Instead of going to my apartment, I was staying at Becca's - so weird and heartwarming. We stayed up and talked till about 4 am before crashing on the futon. We woke up around 11 to Raf's knocking on the door. He said he smelled smoke, and was suprised by my presence, which was hilarious. He can't blame the fire on me - I don't live there anymore! We investigated and broke into my old apartment and found sage burning. Sage is burned to cleanse places of spirits. Remember my ghost?! I wonder if my ghost came back to the apartment with me...

Got dressed and hung out at Rainbow for old times sake. It was so great. I wandered around for over an hour gathering a pile of CDs to take back home with me. It was Max, Raf, and Rob working and it was great catching up with them, and a few of the regular customers who were in the store then. Rainbow Records was and is such a big part of my life and it felt so good to just fall right back into place while visiting. Afterwards I headed over to Starbucks with my laptop and used the last 15 minutes of my battery to write e-mails and go on AIM to solidify the evenings plans. My mom picked me up and we went to the best restaraunt in Newark, yup the Home Grown Cafe. Aw...Home Grown. For some reason, I could hear Jen saying that. :-)

I went over to Matt Winn's to hang out afterwards and we ended up doing a mini CD swap as he told me all about his awesome show at The Grape the previous week. I wish I could have gone, but at least I was there in spirit. The only logical thing was to go to the diner for dinner. Diner...yummmm... We were both starving and excited for diner food that I think we ordered way too much. We started off with broccoli bites and milkshakes. I followed that up with a grilled cheese and tomorrow. I don't really eat dairy, and I probably haven't had anything dairy oriented in over a week...so this moo overload really did me in. We seriously didn't move till about twenty minutes after the check came. Ow.

We raced Maryann to Wawa and won. We also all jubilated at Maryann's promotion to the FM in the aisleways of Wawa. Ew, and exclusive to Wawa is Lay's pickle chips. That could either be the best or worst thing ever. Almost at Logan House, I totally lost my senses. I think I went crazy. Matt said he didn't trust my directions because I was a spaz. I blame the dairy.

Maryann, Matt, Morita, and I congregated upstairs at the Grape as we met up with Jim, John, and Steve and wasted time before the sets. Again, it was so wonderful see everyone :-). Jealousy Curve and Omnisoul rocked the overpacked venue. Matt drove me home and I forgot he didn't know how to get out of there and he almost went the wrong way down a one way. Whoops!

I get to Becca's and join her and Zack in watching Silence of the Lambs. We baked cookies then watched "Uptown Girls". Crashed very late at night and woke up very early in the morning to meet my mom and head back up north. We got here around 1 pm and went into NYC to walk around and get dinner.

Oh - then it was the Super Bowl. I could have cared less. I mean, I have always had love for the Patriots, and of course they and the BoSox are my favorite teams since I am in a New England girl, but I was also rooting for the Eagles as well. Instead of really watching the game, I met up with Maryellen at Rogo's down the street and we drank, socialized, and talked about the weekend and upcoming week. The half time show sucked as did the commercials. Instead of celebrating the game, we went out for pizza.

Then it was Monday morning :-(.