The Philadelphia Experiment Begins

Ok, folks. The lease has been signed, the deposit sent out. We have apartment!! It's a small apartment, but it is in a gorgeous building with an art deco lobby and a view of the city and art museum. Sigh...so nice! Seriously folks, there is a grand piano in the lobby, teak walls and marble floors. And there's a dude there to sign people in.

It has some fancies that I am very excited about.

Walk in closet. I have never had a walk in closet. I don't think there are many storage options in this place, but I love the idea of walking into a closet.

A soaking tub. Now remember, M went out to Philly to look at these places and make the selection, so I don't know what this place looks like other than the internet photos from the listing. I don't know what they mean by "soaking tub" but I have my hopes up ridiculously high. I heart baths and my current tub is just awful.

Washer and dryer. In the unit. A dream of mine for some time. Quarters you no longer have the same hold over me. I don't care about you! My clothes might actually last longer now that I don't have to wash them all together. Imagine it, a wash just for whites. Or for cottons.

Air conditioning. Yes, a completely controlled temperature in my environment. Will I be able to dry my hair in the summer? I think so! Perhaps my makeup won't melt until after I leave the apartment. Dreams people, I have dreams. There's also heat, which is important in a place that has snow, but right now I'm so jazzed on AC I can't wait.

24 hour concierge service. I don't know what this means. I just know that if it's four in the morning, I can call my concierge. I think it's just a security guy falling asleep at the desk in the lobby, but that's still way classier than what I've got going on now.

Fitness center. You heard me, a room with exercise equipment. Good ones, with flat screen tvs in front of them. In a decent sized room. Can you picture this? I not only don't have to leave my building to go to the gym, there is a chance I will be air conditioned for the entire experience from getting out the door to going back to my place to shower.  No grubby trek through the neighborhood with sweat-face and sweat stains in other, less adorable places.

Conference room. I don't really need to confer ever, but it's supposed to be a big room with a kitchenette and fridge that you can reserve for parties. I can't imagine having that many people to invite to anything, but hey, who knows?

Business center. A place to fax and make copies with a computer or two. This is like a hotel, I swear. Faxing technology is so ridiculous and yet I've found that there are several kinds of industries (loans, my graduate school) that only accept faxes. Even though emailing a scan is just as good if not a better image of the signature. Try explaining this to a bureaucrat, it's fun. I may use this business center.

Cafe in the lobby. Not sure about the quality of the cafe, but it's nice to know that I don't have to go far for coffee and a croissant.

A friggin' shuttle bus to center city. This made me think the building was way too good for me. They have a little shuttle that goes to center city regularly so you don't have to make the rather long walk. In the snow, this will be awesome.

I've got a few weeks until we move in, but in the meantime, I'm imagining furniture placement and color schemes. Wonderful!

Other bonuses, it's blocks, four blocks, away from the Eastern State Penitentiary, one of the places I was very interested in visiting.

Eastern State Penitentiary  is a fascinating building. It has a spoke design.

The left top corner is where I will live, and the spoke wheel building on the right is where the Penitentiary is (the big building on the bottom left is the Philadelphia Art Museum).

The Penitentiary opened in the 1820s with the goal of revolutionizing incarceration. It's system was copied by hundreds of prisons worldwide and was eventually called the Pennsylvania system. It's goal was punishment and rehabilitation through solitary penance. Rather than having prisoners work together, this prison severely isolated each prisoner. Other than the warden and the corrections officers, prisoners saw virtually no one. Their cells were made with skylights in them shaped like an eye which was supposed to represent the "eye of God." What was supposed to be a way to get prisoners to reform themselves spiritually (having to be alone under God's watchful eye to think about what they'd done) actually had a devastating effect. It made them go crazy. Mental illness was induced by this process, which alone would be devastating, but it was also accompanied (not surprisingly) by ritualistic torture by the guards. I mean, who are they going to tell, right? It wasn't closed until 1971, but since then, it's been allowed to go to ruin.

It's a creepy site, on account of all that happened there, but it is also fascinating to watch a building be reclaimed by nature. Some of this is happening on Alcatraz, which I visited recently (sounds like I have a prison fix, but I swear that's the only one I've ever been to!).

Al Capone's cell

It's my favorite kind of history, the kind that forces us to come to terms with the not-so-glorious past. This was supposed to be a way to fix the problem of crime, and the people who conceived it and brought it to life had high hopes. This city is full of fascinating places centuries old that I can't wait to explore!

Other places on the agenda:

Bram Stoker's Dracula papers at the Rosenbach Museum
Another trip to the Mutter Museum
My new neighbor, the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Gettysburg
Amish country
This Jersey Shore I keep hearing so much about.