#74 The City of Badass Brotherly Love: Philly adventures

You know I love Philadelphia. Not only did I have an amazing time at Penn, but for a year after graduation, I lived in Center City which solidified my love of this city. It was an amazing place to roam around and launch my "adulthood" (tho I still don't feel like an adult. Let's be perfectly clear about that.)

I spent the weekend in Center City, curious to find out what has stayed the same and what is different, and if I would still get the same feeling that this is MY city, like I did when I lived here.

And I had my badass friends Lizzie and Kirsten with me to adventure with.

I picked The Motto Hilton hotel to stay. The rooms looked spacious in the photos, there was a beautiful looking Mexican restaurant in the lobby, and it was close to Rittenhouse Square, which is my favorite park in Philly. I originally registered for a queen but once I found out my friend Pam might be able to spend the night with me, I looked for a room with two beds. Pam, I love ya, but we don't need to have an overnight cuddle in the same bed. You don't need me drooling on you and hogging the covers.

Hm.....no rooms with two beds, though. Kind of odd.

But they did have a room with bunk beds.

I grabbed it, figuring that we could pretend we were back in the highrise dorms and relive our college experience.

So all of you who are nodding your head in sympathy....you are seeing clearly what I did not see. One queen bed or one set of bunk beds does not equal a reasonably sized room. Duh....

This room -- let me describe it.

There's a chair in the room. The kind of chair you see in a doctor's office that you know isn't terribly comfy but it doesn't matter because you don't typically sit in a doctor's office too long. But as your sole seating option....not so great.

There was a table. You know the size of desk that you had in a big lecture hall? Yeah...that was the size of the table.

No closet, but they did have a few pegs on the wall to hang things. SCORE!

But no place to put my suitcase. Which was ok because I used it to block the noise from the hallway by pushing it up against the door. Yeah... lots of noise! It felt that there was no door blocking me from the hallway. HELLO neighbors! No, I don't care that Michael didn't call you and I don't care that your feet hurt and I recommmend that you get yourself some ice cream but stop whining about not being able to decide whether you should go or not.

The bathroom was fine -- actually it was relatively big in comparison to the rest of the room. Maybe they could create the first ever shower/closet combo (patent pending). Oh, and I think they forgot to add a Hot Water feature. At least the water was tepid.

They did have towels, though. SCORE!!!

It did have a bunk bed. Made of material you might find in an Erector Set from the 80s, not a solid wood one like I was imagining. So shaky. Squeaky every time you moved. And the ceiling of the bottom bunk was just low enough that you couldn't sit upright.

Here's the irony. I chose to sleep in the bottom bunk. Pam, I love ya but I was going to make you hike up to the top, because we have that kind of friendship that we can put our own needs over the other person and not feel badly about it. Sort of. However, I would have given a half-hearted offer to take the top.

But for the first night solo in this room, I figured bottom bunk = easier trip to the bathroom = less squeakiness when I toss and turn all night = more comfy experience.

Nope. The freaking metal Erector Set ladder was just at the right place so when I would swing my legs out of the bed, I would inevitably clock them on the ladder -- which gave out a huge bang, shook the bed, and caused me to have giant shin bruises now. And, there was no air circulation so even though I had the room at the lowest AC setting, it was toasty hot in there. And I couldn't really see the TV because the top bunk got in the way and as stated earlier, I couldn't sit up in bed without banging my head. (and if I sat in the chair to watch TV, I got a great sideways view!)

When I found out that Pam couldn't come stay over Saturday night, I figured I would haul myself up to the top bunk to see what the lifestyle was like up there. Can you believe, it was like heaven! The A/C vent was right over the bed causing a lovely wave of cool air to circulate. The TV was perfectly placed to watch a movie comfortably while SITTING UP because the ceiling was surprisingly high. I lounged, watching Twilight (don't judge) with lovely pillows and comforters to cozy it up and getting an amazing sky high view of Center City. Ahhhhhhhh. And if I didn't really move, the bed didn't squeak and it felt relatively stable. Now this is worth the $$ for the room. SCORE!!!

Except for the dismount. To get down, I had to leap of faith off the narrow and rickety ladder, in which the rungs had metal non-slip spikes. So no matter what I did, I got cuts all over my shins and scraped up my feet just trying to get down. And I wasn't entirely certain the bunks were fastened to the wall, so I was positive the whole thing was going to tip over as I was trying to descend.

What to do...what to do? Sleeping paradise on the upper level? Or should I choose the safe-manoevers-to-the-bathroom-in-the-middle-of-the-night lower level?

Let's just say that I chose the option that would have allowed me to go safely to the bathroom in the middle of the night. lf for once I had actually gotten up to go. Which I didn't for the first time in like forever. So the lower bunk choice did not pay off.

All of this to say that I was really questioning what exactly the $250 cringy air BnB would have gotten me if I had chosen the lower cost option.

But what made this hotel great were the views. Oh wow!!!!! Really and truly, it was worth having an eagle eye on Center City. The architecture is wonderful. The full moon was fantastic. I got to see people coming and going, lots of activity, lots of things to watch. I was even able to see the far away lights from the helicopter landing pad at HUP that Allison and I used to watch every night in the high rises (RED... BLUE...WHITE....GREEN).

It made everything worth it for the view.

Except when I couldn't sleep the first night and decided to look out at the city at 3am.

It was fun looking around and seeing what the city was like when many are sleeping but some are still out having a fun Friday night.

My eyes caught some movement in the open parking lot below the hotel. Oh! Two people are sitting on the hood of a car hugging each other. How nice.

Wait...are they just hugging? Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm.....nah. They are fornicating.

I had my phone on the ready because us girls have to watch out for each other. Just wanted to be sure she looked like she was ok with this situation or else I was getting the police on the way.

Nope. She was good.

Suddenly, the door to the car next to them opened up and a guy came stumbling out of the car. Ooooohhhhh.....now I gotta keep watching to see the drama. How quickly will the coupling couple disengage and run away? How shocked will he appear?

The answers to those questions? They didn't. And he wasn't.

He stumbled to the wall by his car and proceded to relieve himself. And they continued without hesitation.

As he wove back to his car, I thought, "Aha! This is when the confrontation comes!".

But no. He engaged them in conversation. They continued their, ahem... "personal" interaction while appearing to have a pleasant chit chat with him. Can you imagine what that conversation was like? I imagine it was this:

Urinator: "Excuse me. Do you know where I can purchase some Grey Poupon? I seem to have run dry?"

Fornicators: "Well, kind sir, we would share ours with you but we are fresh out as well. However, there is a Wawa just round the corner and perhaps you can purchase some there".

Whatever it was they said to each other, the Urinator got back in his car, pulled out of his space, and cheerfully beeped his horn in farewell. The Fornicators waved goodbye and continued their vertical mambo.

Ah. Philly. The city of Brotherly love.

But who cares about the hotel. I was there to see my old stomping grounds and to visit with my friends.

Kirsten and Lizzie met me at Max Brenners, a Chocolate Restaurant that also includes some food options. They have speciality hot chocolate and coffee mugs where you can cradle your hands to warm them as you sip the velvety goodness. Yummy!

We decided to go hit The Mutter Museum.

The Mütter Museum is a medical museum located in the Center City area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It contains a collection of anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, and antique medical equipment.

We had fun checking out all the medical oddities and comparing them to various situations we have all seen in our nursing careers. No photos were allowed so you'll just have to take my word about what it was like.

Nothing really made me nauseated....not the gigantic mega-colon that held 40 pounds of feces, not the huge ovarian cyst that was bigger than a watermelon, not all the various specimens showing smallpox, syphillis, and leprosy. But there was one thing that made me gag: The mason jar-sized container of skin. That the owner picked off and saved. That was ICK to the nth degree.

We hit the museum store and bought a game called Morbid Curiosity. Here is how it is described:

Morbid Curiosity is a wickedly original party game about death. Get ready for a lively evening of story telling, trivia, and delightfully dark fun with friends and family. Our deck of 162 cards will ignite and challenge your curiosity about the greatest mystery of all - death. Game night is about to get very interesting…

Play along with us:

Question #1: What would be the worst possible name for a Funeral Home? (Rise and Shine? Pack'Em and Stack'Em?)

Question #2: Name every word or phrase that describes death. (Taking a dirt nap? Flatlined? Pre-coffin? Bought the farm?)

I had a great time with you guys. Thanks for spending the day with me. I love you and can't wait to see you again soon!!!! BAHAMAS 2023 ladies!!!

I got to stroll around the city Friday night and took lots of photos of my memories.

Here's where I lived with Julie for the year at 15th and Spruce ont he 3rd floor. Our kitchen was painted in a cow pattern -- which was adorable! My room is the window on the left/Spruce Street side of the building that has the light on in the window at the top of the tree. (Second from the left on the 3rd flood)

Rittenhouse Square, which was the best park to hang out in. My first day of living downtown after graduation was a difficult one because suddenly I realized I was an adult. So I went to the bookstore, bought The Phantom Tollbooth (I think to feel like I was still a kid), and went to Rittenhouse Square to read it. It made me feel better and I always loved the park after that.

Here's the back alley where Pam and I rollerskated. Even though we skated all over the city, I remember this particular alleyway because we were talking about the nursing boards while we skated through here and I think we got our results the very next day.

The Warwick hotel where they had THE BEST bar/club where you could go dancing, get unlimited supercheap beer, and met all your Penn friends who had recently graduated so you felt like you were back in school.

The old Urban Outfitters location (now Anthropologie) where I used to love to shop and one time spent two hours in there trying to find the right outfit for the HUP Neurology/Neurosurgery Christmas Party that we weren't actually invited to but all the nurses crashed which was held at the Museum and was a formal event but we were not wearing formal clothes and all the other nurses were "wearing the right jeans but not blue jeans but you know black jeans but make sure they are fancy". So I looked and looked to find the right outfit. I got an outfit. It wasn't right and I wasn't comfy and it didn't matter because when you crash a formal sit-down Christmas party and you are with a group of nurses in fancy black jeans, everyone sticks out. I could have been wearing non-fancy blue jeans and still would have felt just as uncomfortable as I did that night.

Thank you for staying with me during this story. I had a super fun weekend. I'm glad I went. and yes...I do still feel that this is MY city. I even remembered how to cross the street without hesitating and making the cars stop for me.

Philly....just as I remembered!