A blur

The past few weeks have been very exciting, very hot, very tiring, and have gone by in a blur. I've been putting my place together. It's been difficult and arduous. I hate moving, though. As previously mentioned we had a rough start. Our apartment wasn't cleaned or painted, our truck had to be unloaded in one day, and we had so many boxes that the apartment was basically a sea of boxes with no livable space. After about 4 days, we had something to call home. Don't get me wrong, boxes were still all over the place, but we had a bed, a couch with a view of the television, and a workable bathroom situation. It took us about a week and a half to get my kitchen together.


I love where we are in the city, and I've been enjoying getting to know my surroundings. Now that almost all of the boxes have been opened, the extra stuff sent off to our storage space, and my kitchen has been stocked, I feel good about our little place. We've chosen paint colors and are going to get that started next week. I'll post pics after that, but you can always visit my Flickr site for the recent images (there's a widget on the right sidebar you can use to get to the pics). I am super excited about my new color choices and displaying some new stuff. I still have to refurbish my Saarinen knock-off tulip chairs. That'll wait until it isn't 95 degrees with 80% humidity! I hear fall is nice here. I'm looking forward to it and opening my windows.

Living in a high rise building is cool! I love trash chutes, nice lobbies, elevators, not having to be around to sign for packages, and getting calls from the front desk about visitors. It feels safer. Some of the neighbors are cool, and a lot of people have dogs, but in such a big building, you don't really get to see anyone much. This could be a good thing. My building is, I would say 3/4 full of yuppies and upper middle-class older white folks primarily, who look at me like I'm a freak, or ignore me completely.  Even when I catch their eyes in the lobby and say "hi" while carrying my super-cute dog, they walk right by like I'm not even there. I don't know whether it's because I'm brown, tattooed, or both, but it feels really shitty (I've also been asked if I "own or rent" so maybe that's an additional strike against me).

It's not just my building, though. It happens in the streets too. I'm not the type to say hello to people, but if I'm walking in front of your house and you are within 2 feet of me and you are looking at me, I'm going to feel that it's awkward and thus, try to break the awkwardness with a greeting. You know what sucks? When you don't say anything back. WTF? So the unfriendliness thing is a bit of a culture shock. All over Philadelphia, people aren't exactly unfriendly, but let's just say "aloof." Now, wait a minute. That's not true. The people that work in the lobby love me and my dog. They always say hi, and ask questions about my dog, and seem to be genuine about it. And it seems that people of color are saying hello and and stuff. I've actually gotten plenty of love for my Wonder Woman tattoo! People (of color) on the street say things like, "I love your tattoo," "hey Wonder Woman, how you doin?" or my personal favorite, "The Phillies could use Wonder Woman, they're playing horrible."  I guess since it's so hot, she's out and about and people can see the whole tattoo all the time.

Things I'm really into about Philadelphia:

So much old stuff everywhere! The Gloria Dei old Swede's church was built in 1698! Since Philadelphia is such an older big American city, they boast being first at everything. First library, first fire station, first hospital, first zoo, first botanical garden, first African American church, first Independence Day celebration (1777).


Museums all over the place. The first weekend I was here, I went to the Philadelphia Art Museum (it's right across the way, after all). Such good weird little things in the regular collection. Among them they eye paintings made in the late 18th century and worn on pins, brooches, and rings. Apparently, some European aristocrat's wife had her eye painted in miniature and set in a ring for his wife. She had a similar painting done of her eye for him, and subsequently everyone in their social group copied them, making it one of the creepier fads of the 1700s.

Next museum is the Franklin Institute, which is having a Cleopatra exhibit. I've also got to go back to the Mutter Museum. I'm saving the tour of the Eastern State Penitentiary for the fall, but they have this crazy silly festival for Bastille Day where they have a faux "storming" of the tower while women dressed as Marie Antoinette toss Tastykakes to the crowd below. It's so odd that we have to go check it out!

Water Ice - a tasty little concoction that is Philly's term for an Italian Ice. It's a frozen dessert made from fruit puree and/or flavored syrup. And no, it's not an icee or a slurpee, or a shaved ice, or a sorbet or a snow cone. If you ask a Philadelphian if it's like any of those things, they will say it's a little different. And it is. It's almost as if the ice is made not really of water, but fruit juice. Which is ironic, if you think about it!

The public art here is amazing. I swear, there are sculptures and murals everywhere you look in center city. Big giant ones too!


I am also into the idea that I can walk outside my building and find a cab within minutes, or walk to wherever I need to go. I haven't really used buses or the subway yet, but I expect to use the train to get to places. I have so much to see and so much to do! I am writing the dissertation (still), and my Sweet Lady Shop goes live on Etsy on July 10th. So I haven't been blogging much. Soon things will get back to normal. I'm thinking around September....I'm hoping anyway.

Hope you all have a safe holiday weekend!