so...

I’ve taken a bit of a vacation from posting. I actually kept a journal while I was in Philadelphia and New York, fully intending to get it all online once I got back home, but as the weeks went on, I found that I took a different approach to journaling than I do to blogging. It’s different, I guess, writing just for oneself and writing on a media that the whole wwworld can access. After getting back from my trip, I simply got plain lazy and debated whether or not I wanted to keep up with the blog. After all, as far as I know, only a small handful of people actually read it. But after thinking it through, I decided that if nothing else, it’s a good form of release and it’s certainly cheaper than paying someone to listen to my blabbering. (Blogging: therapy for cheapos.)

So here I am. Again.

Since I haven’t posted in a while, this has the potential to be either a really short, dry post, or an overbearingly long one that goes on all sorts of tangents. (Personally, I’d count on the latter.) I warn you now, so as not to disappoint anybody in search of quick-witted humour or, god forbid, gossip. *gasp* Okay, well maybe there’s a little of that.

Where to start? How about picking up where I left off?

[Ubiquitous Voice-over Man]:
In the last episode, viewers were left hanging on the edge of their seats as they wondered what kind of mischief their hero would get involved in while on his business trip to the City of Brotherly Love. Would he make it across US Customs in one piece? Would he survive the sweltering heat and humidity of the East Coast, as well as the incessant chirping of the cicadas? Would he survive the long hours and gruelling work on the project site? And what of his planned trip to the Big Apple for a week of rest and relaxation? Would he make it to New York to see the bright lights of the big city, or would his workaholic tendencies take centre stage and keep him grounded in Philadelphia?

the terminal
Philly was great! Getting there, however, was a nightmare. My flight left Vancouver at 0800 on Monday morning and was scheduled to arrive in Philadelphia that same evening at around 1800 or 1900. Well, the folks at the US Customs & Immigration office in Toronto weren’t quite as friendly as I thought they would be. I arrived in Toronto at 1530, and was supposed to clear Customs and catch my flight to Philly at 1705. Plenty of time, right? Wong.

I was in the Customs office for three hours. Lots of waiting in line, plenty of attitude from the overly flamboyant and condescending officer that waved me into the waiting room, followed by more twiddling of thumbs in the waiting room line-up, finally followed by lots of questioning in a small office, where, after long last, I got my work visa approved for multiple re-entries. At least I won’t have to deal with that nastiness again for another three years! The greatest thing about the US Customs waiting room were the pictures on the walls – framed photographs of the Twin Towers of the World Trade buildings, flanked by imposing photos of Bush and Cheney – a warning to would-be terrorists, perhaps? And above them, a sign that read “All activities and conversations in this room are being video and audio-taped.”

Once I cleared Customs, I realized that I had long since missed my flight and would have to re-book it. After half-an-hour of waiting in yet another line, I finally got booked standby on a flight to Philly which was scheduled to leave at 2130. So, with 2.5 hours to kill until my flight, I grabbed my first meal since breakfast that morning to ease my neglected, and by now, furious stomach before waiting at the gate for the plane to arrive.

The clock ticked slowly, and by the time 2130 rolled around, we found out the flight was delayed until 2220. When they finally started boarding the flight, I found out, along with four others, that we had been bumped because the flight was overbooked and everyone had indeed shown up. A commotion ensued between the other bumped passengers and the airline staff while I watched from the sidelines, bleary-eyed and tired.

time is an invention
When the dust settled, we were carted off to a hotel room in Mississauga and told that we would be booked on the 0830 flight the next morning. Good thing I didn’t check all of my luggage, or I would have been a very unhappy and a none-too-pleasant-smelling man the next day. Since I was in Mississauga, I thought about calling my friend Jennifer, who I stayed with when I was in Toronto last May. But glancing at the red lights of the alarm clock telling me that it was past midnight, I thought better of the idea.

Finally arriving in Philly, I hopped a taxi to my apartment, dropped off my stuff, and hopped another cab to the project site wearing my TIME IS AN INVENTION t-shirt. Perfect for a ‘this-is-my-first-day-on-site-and-I’m-two-hours-late’ kind of occasion.

And when I arrived in the office, guess who was there? Jenn. Turns out she just flew in for the day to check out the site, go over some of the plans and sort out some details. I guess it wouldn’t have mattered if I had called her the night before when I was stranded in Mississauga. She wouldn’t have been in town anyway.

brotherly love (and all that other good stuff)
The rest of the project went pretty well. I can say without a doubt that it was the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life (including a few fifteen-hour long days), but was probably also one of the best times I’ve had working. Lisa, the graphics project leader, was the best, and if it wasn’t for her, I would seriously have lost my sanity early on. The two of us are so alike in so many different ways that it’s almost scary. It’s rare that you meet someone and have one of those ‘separated at birth’ sort of experiences, but when you do, it’s a total ball! If we weren’t laughing at each other, or tripping over everything in our paths (a story for another day), we were laughing deliriously to keep from crying. I *heart* me some Lisa.

And of course, there was Auntie Gwen, who’s actually the aunt of one of the guys that I work with here at home, but ever since I’ve known her, I’ve called her that as well. She was like my family away from home, inviting me over for a delicious barbecue in exchange for lifting and moving heavy things around her house, and playing mom, making sure that I was prepared for my trip to New York. I miss her infectious laughter and bitingly sharp sense of humour everyday.

As much as it seemed like it at times, not all my days were spent at work. I managed to get out and see the city as well. Because my apartment was literally smack dab in the middle of Center City, everything was pretty much in walking distance. Museums, restaurants, stores, theatres…all just a few steps away. Thanks to my godbrothers Gene and Jonas, I also got to visit New Jersey, New York Chinatown, as well as some sights around town. It was so great to have them to hang out with, especially on nights when I was too lazy to make dinner for myself. Like Gwen, it was totally like having family away from home.

big apple adventures
I stayed on Saturday to wrap up my work on the project and Lisa had to push me out the door to make sure that I went to New York for a much-needed vacation. After church the next day, Jonas and I headed back to my apartment so I could pack. (I’m such a procrastinator – it’s not even funny!) Had a quick lunch in Chinatown, then went to the bus depot. I had planned on taking the Amtrak to New York, which would have set me back $100 or so, but Gene told me about a bus that goes from Philly Chinatown to New York Chinatown for just $20 return, so taking that bus, I managed to save a wad of cash (more money to shop with!).

I slept for most of the bus ride, so once in the city, I was such a disoriented tourist. Luckily, my hotel was located on the edge of Chinatown, near Little Italy and Soho, so I was only a short walk away. The hotel turned out to be better than I expected. For $79 a night in New York, it was pretty great. Small, mind you, but clean and well situated. Everyday, I grabbed a cheap breakfast from one of the bakeries in Chinatown and in the evenings, I would sit on one of the outdoor patios on Mulberry Street with a plate of pasta and a cold beer. Couldn’t have asked for more!

I did the usual touristy things – taking the double-decker bus tour to get acquainted with the city, shopping along Fifth Ave. and Broadway, and every H&M that I spotted, exploring the Met for hours, visiting Ground Zero and listening to the strains of Amazing Grace being played by a scruffy looking man on his flute, buying tickets from the TKTS booth for The Producers on Broadway, wandering around Times Square, among others. Highlights included visiting Harlem with Sharri, who was on vacation with a friend in New Jersey and visited for the day and watching the black and white Manchurian Candidate on a big screen in Central Park.

Gene came up to hang out with me on my last day in New York as well, and we hooked up with his other godsister. Turns out that one of her other godsisters is a good friend of mine. Confusing, I know, but it turned out to be one of those great It’s a Small World After All moments when you half expect the little wooden children from Disneyland to come out from their little cuckoo clock doors and burst forth in song. Along the same lines, I also bumped into family friends while hopping on the hop-on-hop-off double-decker bus tour, and walked past some old friends that I hadn’t seen in years one night in Times Square. Only in New York!