Fun in Philly

So on Monday, I went to Philly to visit rymenhild and flintknappy - because both were there visiting, and so I went to visit both of them.

This involved my being in three states in one day (because one generally travels through a whole lot of NJ when going from NYC to Philly - there is, technically, a way to do it without going through NJ, but it would be a rather roundabout and overall silly way of doing things.) and on four different modes of transportation: subway to bus to train to car on the way there, and car to train to train to subway on the way home. I got to be in various terminals and stations as well: my own subway station, the small local train stations on the other end, the Port Authority bus terminal in NYC, the Market East train station in Philly, the Trenton train station in, yes, Trenton, and Penn Station in NYC. Especially enjoyable was spending about an hour in Trenton with flintknappy while we waited for a train that would get both of us home to different destinations. We also bonded with the snack vendor and bought those little cracker sadwiches for dinner - I got peanut butter, she got cheese, and then we traded a cracker because we could.

Overall, there was much hanging out and much fun as we browsed more than one website, checking out cool t-shirts that one can buy online. (I am too lazy to make links, but it was threadless.com and thinkgeek.com) We also lamented how geeky t-shirts assume a mostly male audience. Also fun was finding t-shirts appropriate for many of my friends and saying things like, "oh, nuqotw would like that one" - which led rymenhild to say, nuquotw? I know her from college." Oh, right. Forgot.

Also impressive was the impact that the internet and things like instant messaging have had on our lives. For one thing, the three of us managed to have two conversations simultaneously. This did not involve one person talking to a person on either side in two conversations, it involved two of us beginning one conversation with the third one while the third one began a completely different conversation with the other two. Imagine it going something like this (with the topic being rather different, of course):

A: Hey, B. Did I tell you I got a new umbrella?
B: No, you didn't. I knew you were looking for one. What did you find?
A: Well, this thing is awesome. It glows in the dark and it is supposed to be strong enough to stand up to a hurricane. Not that anyone would be crazy enough to walk out in a hurricane...
B: I did - just last week.
A: I mean, hurricanes are dangerous, so it doesn't make sense.
B: Did you hear what I said. I walked in a hurricane just last week.
A: Really? So you were down in Florida after all?
B: Yeah, I was.
A: You told me you weren't going to go down there.
B: Yeah, well, I lied.
A: So tell me about the hurricane.
B: Well, I got soaked.
A: Too bad you didn't have an umbrella like mine. It would have kept you dry. It even comes with a raincoat.
B: Really? Well, I was so wet I came inside and flooded the entryway. But you were telling me about your umbrella...

Okay, so that is a rather silly example, but it went something like that. It involved two completely different but tangentially related topics, and we kept bouncing back and forth between them without missing a beat - like having an IM chat, only in person.

And we all had many good laughs and there was much good bonding and so on - and I was gone from my apartment for about 13 hours, which is to say all day - and over half of that in transit, but so worth it and so much fun. :)