The Salon

Today was one of the most interesting days of my summer so far.  After finally getting myself to leave the house, I headed down to South Philly to meet up with Jon.  After he finished cleaning out his hookah, we headed over to Wonderland, a store on 20th and Walnut.  Unfortunately, we walked all of the way there for it to be closed.  Jon suggested we get some food, so we went next door to the The Irish Pub. 

It turns out that there are 2 Irish Pubs on Walnut Street.  There is one on 20th, the one we went to, and another on 12th.  Jon had a pretty generous looking burger with a side of fries and 2 sodas for less than ten dollars.  I had a salad, but it wasn't wonderful.  I did, however, enjoy the chicken they cooked for it.  I was pretty amazed at the prices for the food which were extremely reasonable especially for this area of Philadelphia.

After our stint at the pub, we walked around a little while longer and met up with my friend, Amanda.  Amanda took us to The Salon.  The Salon is an extremely interesting experience.  It was such a new and interesting experience that I was at a loss for words for a while.  I'm not exactly sure even how to continue with this blog.  You should first know that The Salon is modeled off of 18th century European musical culture.  During this time, a great deal of music was performed in very intimate settings in the home.  This was made to emulate that idea.

Jon, Amanda, and I walked into a door leading into a house in an alley, and there was a pile of shoes at the bottom of the staircase.  We removed our shoes, and that's when it sort of hit Jon and me that this would be interesting.  We headed up a few flights of stairs where a woman took our ten dollar "donation" to The Salon.  After heading up more stairs to the 3rd or 4th floor, we entered a room with a very high ceiling full of people.  These people were mostly in their sixties.  Jon described them as looking both like hippies and intelligent university professors.  These people were mostly sitting on the floor as there was little furniture for all of the people in the room to share.  This day was by far the most humid day of the year so far.  There were at least 100 people in this room with one air conditioner which was shut off and turned on repeatedly during the concert.  Hopefully you've got an idea of the ambiance at this point.

Andrea Clearwater, the renter of The Salon space, piano player, composer, and graduate of Temple University introduced each of the performers.  There were ten acts in all, five, then an intermission, then another five.  The first three were upbeat jazz artists, but the next few performed 20th century 12 tone pieces.  There was a small intermission during which I managed to acquire myself a cup of wine and a handful of pretzels.  It was a nice atmosphere, albeit hot and muggy.  There were many professionals from the east coast, indigenous to many different countries who were experienced performers and composers.  And...I got to see it all for ten dollars.

After we left The Salon (it lasted for the better part of four hours), we headed over to the Midtown Restaurant.  The Midtown Restaurant is a very simple diner.  It has a counter and some booths, and it's definitely a step back into time.  It definitely hasn't been updated since at least the seventies.  The menu prices were also very affordable, and they should be, for diner food.  

Today was another pretty lazy day.  I hung around my house in New Jersey until 5 and then headed back to Philadelphia.  On my way back, I stopped at Wegman's for some groceries so I could cook up a nice dinner of stuffed peppers.  Remember those peppers I bought for so cheap at the market near my house?  Those are the ones I stuffed.  After Wegman's, I headed to the wrong CVS to pick up my photos, but was then redirected to the CVS farther uptown where my pictures were.  Oops!  

I got my photos, but I was a little disappointed with some of them.  I hate that you can't develop 4x6 pictures in the right proportion, but many of them came out nicely.  I went back to Chris' apartment with my groceries to a very warm welcome, and then we had some dinner.  After dinner and vanilla coke zero floats, I read some more Barbara Walters and Chris studied.  After a while, I realized his brain was fried, so we just hung out and listened to some music while we both skimmed our respective books.  It was a nice and relaxing night.  I love cooking for Christopher, and he even seemed to like what I made this time!  

There's not too much to report today.  I didn't go anywhere new since I was at home in New Jersey, but I did get to watch a new movie, 27 Dresses with Katherine Heigl which I really enjoyed.  

Today was kind of a strange day.  I headed home to Allentown, New Jersey in the afternnon and waited around for my mother to take my sister and I to the beach.  We hung out on the beach for about 20 minutes, but it was really cold so we decided to get some dinner over at Pete and Elda's.  

My sister had always wanted to go to Pete and Elda's because I talk about it so much and have been there so many times with my friends.  I have never had a bad morsel of food from that place, and it serves the thinnest crust pizza ever.  Unfortunately, there is usually an enormous wait time to be seated, but since we walked in around 4:30 on a Thursday, we were seated immediately.  I had a couple of slices of pizza and one of their delicious house salads.  

I've also discovered that Blue Moon with a slice of orange is a wonderful thing.  Yuengling Lager used to be my favorite stand-by beer from the tap, but I'm slowly loving toward making Blue Moon my standard.  I love how sweet it is. 

Later that evening, I went out with Tom.  He came to pick me up and we headed out to Hightstown, New Jersey to see if we could find a place for Tom to have some dinner outside.  We went to Theo's Tavern on the Lake which has a huge deck overlooking both the Highstown lake and a parking lot.  Tom got a pretty big bacon cheeseburger with homemade potato chips which I got to sample, and they were delicious.  The waitstaff was pretty friendly.  While it's nothing like some of the places in the city I enjoy going, it was still a pretty enjoyable evening.

After hanging out at Theo's we headed to Walmart in Hamilton.  After Tom found what he needed we headed over to Dairy Queen.  I'd never had a blizzard from there, and it was really delicious.  I have a new appreciation for Diary Queen.   Tom and I had some ice cream in the parking lot while we listened to Tom on the radio.  Yes, I listened to him on the radio while being in the car with him.  He had pre-recorded a show at 100.1 WJRZ, so we got to listen to him in the car.  

I love my laid back nights with Tom so much.  He's wonderful company and the best friend I could ever ask for.

Today's weather was really nice.  I got up late after a great night's sleep and hung out around Chris' porch.  I went home for a few hours and he called me around 6 to ask if I wanted to have dinner with him.  He cooked up some burgers (on which I passed) and I asked him if he wanted to go to Johnny Manana's with me in East Falls.  I called earlier to ask if they had live music and it turned out that one of my classmates, Rich Cox, was playing there from 8-11.  

I texted Monica and asked if she and Russ wanted to come, too.  She invited us over for homemade guacamole and pico de gallo which was really incredible.  It was by far the best version of each of those dips I had ever had.  After hanging around for an hour or so, we headed down to East Falls and got to Johnny Manana's around 8:30.  

Johnny Manana's is a really neat little place.  There is a bar, outdoor seating, and amazing margaritas.  I had a watermelon margarita which Monica, Chris, and I thought was really pretty delicious.  Monica also had a mojito which she thought was delicious.  During one of Rich's breaks in between sets, he asked me to sing with him, but I'd unfortunately requested the one song I knew all of the words to.  I eventually sang "Fly Me to the Moon" with him which the old men in the establishment loved.  It was such a great time and I'm really looking forward to going back to hear Rich on Wednesday.  

You should check out his website!  www.richcox.net  

Work and Lesson

Today, I woke up pretty early.  I didn't have to be at "work" until 11:45, but I got a phone call from the boss lady around 9 and she asked me to come as soon as I could.  I did just that.  I got to the house around 10:30, but my old man didn't come down stairs until after 12.  Oh well.  He was very tired and upset, I think, so working with him wasn't as fun as it usually is.  That's okay.  We all have bad days, and I assured him things would get better in his life and that I thought he was improving.  I really do believe he is.  

I left and went to my voice lesson with Julie.  She seems to think I got a little bit better since last week and that my breath coordination was a lot better.  I'm glad.  We worked on my French piece and I got to sing a piece from Guys and Dolls before we got started.  I really enjoyed it, but it wasn't as fun as singing Julie Andrews last week.

Afterwards, I headed home and made some veggie tacos for myself.  I stopped at the produce market before I got home, so I had some fresh tomatoes for them which was pretty nice.  The best part of the trip was that red peppers were only $1.25 a pound which I thought was incredible. 

After dinner and watching American Idol (GO ADAM LAMBERT!), I headed over to Christopher's house.  I hadn't seen him since early Friday morning, so I was happy to be able to see him.  I only really got to spend an hour with him before he went to bed, but that's okay.   I'll take what I can get!

Chris' Jazz Cafe

Today was a pretty lazy day. My hip didn't feel all that well, so I just hung out, did some blogging, and waited to go to Chris' Jazz Cafe with Shaynen and his girlfriend, Jocelyn. Shaynen just graduated from Virginia Tech and this was the first time I'd seen him in a while.

Shaynen and Jocelyn came into the city and we drove down to Chris' Jazz Cafe on Samson between Broad and 15th.  For a five dollar cover charge, you can stay and hang out for four hours to listen to a show.  Dana Ellis, a Temple student, and her quintet played.  I really enjoyed seeing a lot familiar faces from school both in the ensemble and in the audience.  Dana and the quintet really put on a good show filled with some standards and originals.  I'm looking forward to hearing them again.  Jeff Torchon, the piano player (and one of the coolest kids in my music history class) told me he plays down at Penn's Landing on the weekends at the Chart House, so I'm looking forward to going there, too.

All Day with Monica

I woke up pretty early today and figured it was a good idea to text message Monica and ask her if she wanted to go to brunch.  Before going to lunch, I saw my roommate, Melissa, and we watched Gingy rediscover his tail.  I got it on camera, and it's pretty funny.  

Monica and I went to Bob's diner on Ridge Avenue in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia.  They had FANTASTIC omelets and Monica decided it was the best she'd ever had.  She had spinach and crab in hers, and I had tomatoes and American cheese (big surprise).  

After the diner, Monica asked me if I wanted to go to Ross to pick out some toys for her dog, Jericho.  I picked out some stationary and tried to help her find a purse.  I also got a scratching post for Gingy, but he continues to scratch the carpet around the scratching post instead of the actual post.  Oh well.  No one ever said he was a smart cat.

After dropping off some toys for Jericho at Monica and Russ' apartment, we headed out to Target to pick up a few things, but made a pit stop at Starbucks first.  I got a pair of pants and a skirt so I could have a couple more bottoms to get me through until my other clothes start to fit me again after my hip surgery.  We came back here and Monica so kindly helped me lug my stuff up to my apartment.  

We watched Look Who's Talking with Kirstie Alley and John Travolta while munching on...munchies.  It was lovely, and then I went into a food coma before Catherine called me to go to the Ugly Moose.

Monica left, and I picked up Catherine at the train station around 7:15.  We headed to the Ugly Moose, split a Panini and discovered the 20 oz. special, Carlsberg.  It's a beer from Holland, pale, and delicious.  I started to hang out with my new bartender pal, Mac.  He's been serving me drinks for almost a year now, so it's about time I figured out what his name was.  After listening to some of Kyle's music, and hanging out, we went to a take out place to pick up some Corona for Melissa.  For the first time in a while, I was carded, and some flirty over the hill man at the place insisted on telling Catherine and I we looked like beautiful sisters.  The old man at the counter then tried to tell the woman working behind it that my ID must be fake because I'm from New Jersey.

We returned to my apartment to listen to watch the Dane Cook special on Comedy Central and drink some brews.  It was a quiet night of beer and laundry, aside from the part where I saw Kevin naked.  Oops.

Lazy Saturday

I worked with the old man again today.  It was hard getting up early to go work, but it was worth it.  I worked for about four hours, but it took two hours for him to remember to come downstairs.  His wife and I only had to remind him about ten times to come down.  I arrived prior to 10 AM, and he didn't come down until almost noon.  So what did I do?  I read Barbara Walters for 8 dollars an hour.  

After I left, I did some wandering around Northeast Philadelphia.  I was looking for some cheap skirts or shorts but I didn't have much luck.  After I wandered around, I came home, and watched Rachel Getting Married.  It was pretty good.  I returned the video on my way to Temple, where I hung out with Catherine, a friend I met in choir last year.  Catherine just moved down to Main Campus from the Ambler campus, so I went and visited her.  We had some pizza, and I met her friend Lauren, and Lauren's friend Steve.  We talked about some linguistics which was pretty funny...you know, regional accents and things like that.  It was a pretty relaxing night and we planned to go to the Ugly Moose the next night to hear Kyle from Bourbon Blue.

Zoo and BEERFEST

Today was also a good day by the time it ended, but it didn't start out wonderfully.  I left Chris' apartment being angry.  I drove around the Tulpehocken train station and got pinched into the guardrail which really screwed up the passenger side of my car.  I headed to the zoo after coming home and feeding Gingy, and when I tried to park I whacked up the front end of someone's SUV.  Great. 

After all of that mess, I finally headed into the zoo with my membership receipt to walk around and relax.  After about an hour and a half, I finally found the tigers.  There were four of them, and there was a little stool over in the corner.  I went and sat down and after about 20 minutes, one of the tigers came up to where I was sitting, turned around, and projectile peed at the glass in front of my face.  If it didn't happen to me, I think it would have been REALLY hilarious, because everyone else seemed to think it was.  It just scared the crap out of me.  Oh well.

After the zoo, I came home and watched Yes Man.  Well, I tried to watch it, but I fell asleep for 2 hours before turning it back on and finishing it.  When I was done, I took a shower and got ready for Beerfest.  

I should probably explain what Beerfest is.  It is a semi annual event planned by the 1425 Boys of Ellsworth Street, formally the 1227 Boys of South Street.  It's a competition.  You've got to be able to spin around on a bat, run to your beer, chug it, and tag your partner.  You've got to be able to chug four beers between 2 partners in about 25 seconds.  There's pong, flipcup, and hookah smoking our on the back patio.  It's really a lot of fun.  Teams are made of a male and female.  Jon's parter got sick at the last minute, so he wound up being my partner which was pretty awesome.  Jon and I were a pretty good Beerfest team and our theme was obnoxious headwear.  The pictures will show you why.  

I left around one.  It was a lot of fun partying like a college kid and listening to Animal Collective with the UArts kids.  Props to Jon, Mike, and Alex for having such a great get together!

Shopping Adventures

Today was also a pretty good day.  I worked with my old man for seven hours again and got a nice chunk of change for it.  Chris called me after his exam while I was still at the old man's house to tell me he got a job at a pharmaceutical company in Montgomery County for the summer.  Sweet. 

After I was done working, I headed to Chris' apartment and we had some pizza from Fino's.  It wasn't that great.  It was one of the places we went on our pizza tour.  I didn't really like the sauce originally, and Chris decided he didn't really like this pizza too much, either.  Oh well.  It was alright and worth a try.  After dinner, we headed to Walmart and Home Depot to find cushions for Chris' new porch furniture, but we were unsuccessful.  Chris pulled me around on a shopping cart in the Home Depot Parking lot which thrilled me endlessly.  

Here's the Wisdom: Drink the Wine.

Today wasn't as great as the day before, at least until the evening.  I had to go for an emergency consultation for my wisdom teeth.  I bet you can guess what I have to do next Friday.  I'm not happy.

Anyway, after leaving the really awful consultation, I went around the corner to Stewart's and had myself an orange soda float.  It was pretty amazing.  As I was parking, I scanned the radio channels and settled on a channel.  After the song was over, the voice on the radio wound up being Tom's!  It was only then that I realized I had put on the Rider University radio station, 107.7: The Bronc.  It was pretty neat, especially because Tom had just left my apartment 3 or  hours prior to me accidentally hearing him on the radio.  

I drove home and tried to figure out what I could feed my friend Monica for dinner.  I discovered that I had some whole wheat pasta, broccoli, and crushed tomatoes, so I made some homemade sauce with "Special Broccoli" on the side.  I liked it and I think Monica did, too.  We had some wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington.  It was pretty good, especially when compared to my Walnut Creek Merlot which is pretty gross. 

After Monica left, I read some more Audition, Barbara Walters' memoir, which I'm really enjoying.

Working, Singing, Drinking, Swinging

Today was a really good day.  I worked about seven hours with my "old man."  I work for the Temple Time Out Program which provides respite care for care givers.  These people mostly take care of older people with dementia.  My old man and I had a great day.  We did some exercises to help get his mind going...a few crossword puzzles, word finds, Connect Four, and some checkers.  

After my job was finished, I headed to my voice lesson with Julie.  It was the first time I'd sung in a while, and I wasn't really looking forward to it.  After doing some vocal exercises, Julie and I sang and played two songs from the Sound of Music.  She was right...I really needed to sing something fun.  It's really motivating when music becomes fun again.

After my lesson, I came home, made myself some dinner, and waited for Tom to arrive here. 

He got here around 9:30, and we headed to Bourbon Blue, a bar right off of Main Street on the Skukyll River in Manayunk.  Bourbon Blue has 5 dollar Long Island Iced Teas and half priced snacks on Tuesday nights...and, of course, the musical stylings of Kyle.  Yes, just Kyle.  He plays popular songs on his guitar and sings, but he's really pretty awesome.  

Bourbon Blue was definitely a great time.  The food was delicious and the drinks were stiff.  What more could you ask for?  Tom and I had a few iced teas, then proceeded to walk back to the car.  On the way back, we found an amazing playground.  Certainly we needed to play on it!  After swinging on the playground, we headed back to the car and just listened to the radio for about a half hour.  A cop was watching us from the end of the street and even though I wasn't feeling too buzzed, I wasn't feeling too excited for a DUI either, so we just hung out.  We headed back to my apartment around 1:30 to call it a night...a really awesome night!

Blue Moon over Sicily

The beginning of my summer started with some Sicilian pizza and a pint of Blue Moon with an orange slice at Maxi's.  I finished Theory II which was, after having missed so much class, cause for celebration.  My finals, all two of them, were finished.  

I liberated myself today.  Instead of staying cooped up in my Germantown apartment building to study, I briefly gave up and headed down to Center City to relax.  At first, I felt very guilty because it was Mother's Day, but I gave my mother her gift yesterday.  

I finally had it with studying around 2 or 3 PM, so I headed down to Center City in search of a couple hours of relaxation.  I've been wanting to read Barbara Walters' memoir for some time.  It just came out in paperback, so I parked at 17th and Samson, loaded my meter, and headed into the Rittenhouse Square to go to Barnes and Noble and pick up my book.  I walked around with my new purchase for a little while until I found a place with outdoor seating that wasn't packed. 

I found a place between near where I parked called Tavern 17.  I ordered a glass of Pinot Noir and enjoyed myself with my book.  I ordered a salad with a balsamic reduction which was of a pretty reasonable size for six dollars, and a grilled vegetable slider for three dollars.  I thought the food was delicious, but I was a little neglected outside.  The service was slow and the wait staff was inside congregating.   I got my food in a reasonable amount of time, but then had to wait ten minutes for the wait staff to give me a place setting.  I wasn't in a rush, so it was okay.

Tavern 17 is pretty swanky, but reasonably priced.  I discovered they have a pretty nice happy hour, and live music on Thursdays.  I'd like to go there on a Thursday at some point since everything was fairly reasonable and it's got a cool ambiance.  I found the outdoor seating to be very relaxing, aside from the part where I didn't have anything to eat my food with.

I wandered a little while longer until my meter ran out, searching for a Bank of America ATM so I could get some cash.  A homeless woman who was sitting on the steps of the church which I parked in front of asked me for a 3rd time if I had any spare change.  When I came back to check my meter, she insisted she wouldn't have let the meter run out, which I thought was pretty funny.