Summertime

I'm sitting on the floor of Arjie's old bedroom, my new place in Philadelphia, eating rotisserie chicken, herb, and drinking fine Yuengling ("*traditional*") lager. I got in last night.

My new place is cool. It's big, and there's always parking at the apartment's doorsteps. I had to park 5-10 minutes' walk away from my old apartment, which cost twice as much. The neighborhood is kind of rundown, but it feels safe. I live next door to people who sit on the street in lawn chairs, wearing bathing suits, but it's cool, I'm open minded. It's near a 24 hour well-known cheesesteak place called Tony Luke's, all of Philly's major stadiums, and stuff like Target, Ikea, Walmart, which I'm actually using.

As far as I can see (24 hours of experience), Philly seems like it's basically an oversized New Haven, with a bunch of South Philadelphians added in, and all of the New Englanders taken out. South Philadelphians are like people from East Haven, with a capital-eye. They call tomato sauce "red gravy". I bet the Italian food around here kicks ass. They're surly and a lot of them don't seem to use deodorant. The Eagles fans are pretty die-hard - they're like Yankees fans, but for football. I feel bad that the Patriots have to beat the hell out of the Eagles every year just because the Eagles suck so much.

The central areas of Philadelphia are great. Again, like an oversized version of that area around Yale's campus in New Haven. Some good stores, good areas to walk around, attractive architecture, and a lot of good-looking girls wearing dresses. I don't know anything about the bars yet.

The liquor laws here are retarded and are the worst thing about Philadelphia, so far. Look, first, no package stores. No beer in grocery stores. You can only buy 6-packs from delicatessens and, I think, restaurants, and I think the only place to buy a case of beer is at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. avenue at 2am in the morning. The wine and liquor stores are run by the fucking state! The state! Like communist russia! The prices are ass. I blame the Dutch. I'll be able to buy alcohol in New Jersey, where's it's cheaper, although I think it's illegal to bring the liquor across state lines. Gas prices are about 10c cheaper than Los Angeles. Philadelphia has something called a wage tax, where the city expects 4% of your income - I plan on trying to dodge it.

The drive across the country. The women who work in Starbucks in the middle of the country are approximately 1/20th as attractive as the girls in California Starbucks. I listened to the same 5 CDs about 10 times each. I saw my grandparents for the first time in about 6 years. A lot of people in the far midwest seem kind of sad and useless - Iowa, Nebraska. Good looking areas, not somewhere where I would live. I liked western Colorado, near Aspen, very cool. I went to a Waffle House for the first time and I thought it sucked. I ate at Cracker Barrel twice and I thought that was good given how inexpensive it was. White Castle once. You only find Starbucks locations in higher income areas of the country. People in California are friendlier than midwesterners. The entire country between the Rockies and about 50 miles west of the Atlantic looks almost identical.

HERE ARE SOME PICTURES:

Keeping my eye on the game.

"El bro de la coca?!"

This is a rock I saw somewhere in Utah. It was big and red.

I think this was called Devil's Canyon:

Overall, it was the best cross-country trip ever.

Stone