Phil-a-delphia Freedom, I Looove You.

Not. I do NOT love Philadelphia. Let me make this very clear. For years, Philadelphia has been my least favorite city in the whole entire world. Not that I have been to every city in the world, but not a bone in my body ever wanted to return to Philadelphia. Not only do I hate Philly, but I also despise Pennsylvania. It's a huge state of nothing. I drove through it once on a shockingly fun family road trip to Ohio and it felt like we were driving through Pennsylvania for about 3 days. In reality it was probably like 7 hours, but it was miserable. Let's just say that getting to the airport this morning, I was far from thrilled about my next destination.

This morning my flight was at 1pm. Which means I was there around 11am. Typically, I have been on flights at 9:30 am, thus, arriving around 7:30. Let me tell you, the people who fly in the morning are very different from those who are on later flights. Selected flight time must reveal some hidden truth about a person. You are when you fly. I always whined my flights were so early, but now, I'd rather be a morning person. Somehow, the later people are crankier. You would think they had longer to sleep and they would be happier. But no. They had longer to be awake and are moodier. Even the workers are more rude by 11am. It's like they start off all fresh in the morning and as the day goes on they encounter more and more miserable cranks, and then they get crankier, pushier, and more rude (ruder?) as time goes on. No dice. Learn from my social observations, folks. Earlier = better.

I got to the airport and headed through airport security. Deep down inside, I think the TSA read my last blog which mentioned SARS and white powder and now they have it out for me. I get up to the metal detector and the person makes me take my sweater and scarf off, walk back to the conveyor belt to run them through, go back through the detector, and then wait for them to come through the system. Now, under my sweater/cardigan I had on a camisole. A white, see-through skimpy cami that was never meant to be seen by anyone. I happened to be wearing a colored animal print bra, which meant you could totally see it through my shirt and I could not have felt more exposed. If I wanted to walk around half naked, I would not have worn the sweater. It was a part of the outfit! The scarf was strategically placed to cover the see through factor and the sweater was to cover up my body. Would you like me to take my pants off right here in the middle of the airport too? Might as well. THANK YOU TSA. Way to feel totally violated. Next time, it's jeans and a t-shirt. Who needs fashion.

No one too terribly interesting next to me on the plane. All we said was hello. Though the people in front of me are destined to get married. Two total strangers, in their 30s-40s, hit it off so well. I couldn't help but listen in on their conversation and chemistry. They talked the whole entire flight, never missing a beat. I passed out mid flight, as usual. The whirring of the engines just puts me to sleep right after take off. It's essentially out of my control. Hypnosis. Take off was really pretty though. The New England foliage was amazing from 10,000 feet up. It looked like the hills were on fire. I couldn't get enough of it. I craned my neck to look out the window long after I got a neck cramp from the uncomfortably stretched position. Breathtaking though. I wish I had a camera with me to take a photo. I put a photo over there for you readers just to get an idea of what it looked like. This was the closest Google image I could find. It looked like someone had painted the world. Maybe God if you believe in that, if not Him, Mother Nature for sure.

So I got to Philly and got my rental car. The adorable little old Enterprise driver went to carry my heavy luggage off the van. I went to take them from him and he said "No, no. I'll take those. You take this" and he reached for my hand and puts a Werther's hard candy in it. How adorable, like grandparents on TV. I felt like he should be my grandfather. I wish mine was that nice!

Driving out of the airport, I got into the heart of Philly. All my hate for PA came back to me and I sat in traffic on 95, driving through the dirty, construction-filled highways, where buildings looked old, tarnished and disdainful. Ick. Earlier from the air I saw this huge bridge covered in a tarp. Cars were going under it. I wondered what it would be like to drive through it. To my surprise, an hour later I was driving under it! It wasn't as cool as I was expecting. Dark. Why does Philadelphia have so many bridges?! There had to have been at least 3 I drove over and another 8 I saw in the distance. Who knew there was so much water. It made me think of Washington crossing the Delaware. That vision always being Kermit the Frog to mind. I think years ago there was a commerical with Kermit and Washington together on that boat. Thank you Hensen for editing my historical memories. Of course the frog was on the boat!

My hotel is nice and so is my Jeep Patriot, a "little" SUV that isn't much smaller, just lower to the ground. I'm staying out in the suburbs. Things aren't so bad here. Much cleaner. A lot like New Jersey, except you can make left turns!!