Septa… I will remember this.

Septa is on strike at the moment.   Now, usually this would not really effect me, because I live on campus, I eat on campus, and I work on campus.  It is a great set-up for me, but then again, most of my friends live off campus, so in order to see any of them (LIKE I TRIED TO DO YESTERDAY) I need septa… or my bike.  Now my bike is perfectly fine, but if one is trying to go out to dinner with some friends, one can’t bike everywhere all the time with their friends.

Septa is on Strike

I do not know any of the politics behind this strike, nor do i claim to be an expert on transit workers/fares/jobs/strikes.  Thus, I cannot even begin to imagine what has made them come to the point at which they are striking.  All I can say in my naive and uninformed world is that it sucks for me when I am trying to get downtown.

Septa Trains

Luckily they did this after the World Series was over.

Yeah Phillies!!

Phillies in the world series! Pretty sweet

Phillies!

Phillies win game 1. Pretty sweet.

Philly. what a city

Yankees fans in Philly? ok.

My friend Erika in the Metro

I’m with the band…?

So… I like to play instruments that I have never learned.  This post goes out to all of the band members who have let me play their instruments.

Me playing the trombone

The trombone… the longest instrument I played… also note the super cool eyebrow raise as well as the look of awe and wonderment on the members of the band as they see and hear the awesomeness coming out of my trombone.

Moving on to the flute

flute… less manly, but more fun.

Couldn't pass up the clarinet

Clarinet… Its a classy instrument, and I am a classy guy, so it fits.

The pig conducting my brass playing

That’ll do pig… that’ll do.

The tuba... the grand-daddy of instruments

The tuba was a good time, a little heavy, but great. 

My mellophone skills

Mellophone?  OH yeah!  Had fun.

Jammin' on the Trombone

I like the Basketball games to showcase my skillz.

Freshman Seminar

I am an RA… so I get a lot of time to hang out with freshmen.  Recently, I have heard a lot about their freshman seminars, and it has made me think back to my time as a Freshman Seminar Peer Instructor.  It was a great time in my life.  Last year, I was a peer instructor for Ana Adinolfi and one of the honors freshman seminars.  We were Team Adinolfi… and we rocked

Team Adinolfi

You can tell how awesome we are from the picture.  Really, our awesomeness is exuded even in picture form.

Another wonderful thing about the class was my counterpart in the competing class, Sara Hanson.  We were both peer instructors for opposite honors seminars, and thus we had a little rivalry going on.  But it was a blast.

Sara and I are BALLER

We were two very cool peeps.  I miss it… but hey.  its cool.  I guess it would be unimaginable to talk about my freshman seminar without talking about the wonderful woman who made it all possible.  Ana – great lady.

Ana - Wonderful Woman

Really though, I had a fantastic time, and these freshmen are lucky to have such a wonderful experience.  I am a little jealous that I can’t go back and experience it all again.  But this post took me back down memory lane. 

Missing Summer?

So the summer was a great time.  A phenomenal time.  I enjoyed it quite a bit.  But now it is clearly the time to move on… So I must put it in the past, and simply look forward.  Just to look back for a little bit though, I will share with you some tid-bits of my summer.

Where I spent my office hours

I worked at this desk at the Podiatry office this summer, and I must say, it wasn’t a bad gig.  I do like the triangle office better, but I will always be partial to podiatry housing.

The storage shelves at landmarks

This is where I went every morning of my internship.  Good memories.  Also, if you look closely, The second to bottom shelf has leeches on it.  That is Badass.  But anyway, it was a good internship, I had fun… and now it is over, just like summer

This is my view from the chair i sat in

This is more or less my view when i was hanging out at the Physick house waiting for people to come, or grabbing some rest before my non-profit administration duties.

Overall, I miss summer, but I am glad that the school year has started and that we are back on track to have a good year.

Dirty Dancing in Heaven?

Sad to say… Patrick Swayze,  Died.

Patrick Swayze in his younger days

Patrick Swayze… Great man.

Patrick Swayze died

It is with sadness of heart that I talk about this, since Patrick Swayze was a fantastic actor, and a pretty suave dancer as well.  I will not pretend i am not jealous of his moves.  Furthermore, the song “She’s like the wind”

I love this song!!! Love it.  I also love the remixed version, which some might see as worse than the original, but I don’t care, I love it all the same.  Anyway, super sad.

I’m moving out…

So here is what happened to me.  I moved out of the downtown apartment into one across the hall.  It was a decent apartment, though the air conditioning had its problems, which led to me sleeping on the floor for a few nights.  Regardless, it may have had a similar or better view than the one I left.  Despite having all my stuff in boxes for 2 weeks, I had a good time in the new-ish place.

My Original Chinatown Apt.

The Old place was nice.  I loved living down there, and the newer place was alright too.  Different views and different feels to them, but good.

My new-er apartment

The view from the new one was of the police station in Chinatown (Which I have heard is shaped like handcuffs – more or less on purpose).  I had a lot of fun down there, and although I live in an AMAZING place now… I will never forget the Chinatown experience.  I enjoyed having my own kitchen, I enjoyed cooking, I enjoyed having  a living room, I enjoyed life.  And furthermore, I lived right downtown, in Chinatown, a bike ride away from Old City, Independence Hall, City Hall, Rittenhouse Square, Franklin Square, Love Park, and even North Philly.  I was close to everything, and could go wherever I wanted.  Don’t get me wrong, I love North Philly… but I miss my old diggs.

The Doctor before Dr. Pepper

This summer I have had the opportunity to work in a house where the late, great, Dr. Physick lived.  Dr. Physick is hailed as the “Father of American Surgery” and also as the “pop” of soda in America.  – a little pun there for you.

Dr. Philip S. Physick

Dr. Pepper was not around until 1885,

Dr. Pepper

1807, Dr. Physick introduced artificial carbonated water to America for the relief of gastric disorders. Teaching a pharmacist how to make it to supply his patients, Physick later suggested fruit syrup be added to make it more palatable.

These days, the flavor and the soda of old times has been revived.  J. Del Connor has brought back this famous soda so that the world can taste it yet again.  He is in fact a relative of the great doctor, and runs the house that Dr. Physick used to live in.

Dr. Physick Soda

If you want to buy any of this famous soda, or if you just want to check out the site.  www.drphysick.com    It is a pretty great flavor, and I can attest to its deliciousness. 

My internship and the Tonight Show host

In an earlier post, I mentioned the fact that I am an intern at the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks.  With this internship, besides working with some lovely people, I have learned a little history of the city of Philadelphia.

Funny tid-bit here -  An interesting connection has come to my attention between one of the houses at which I work and a certain Late Night host.

Conan O'brian - Samuel Powel

The reason that these two are even worth relating in this post, is because Conan is married to Elizabeth Ann Powel, a relative of Samuel Powel.  The reason this matters to me, is because Conan’s uncle (or at least he said he was Conan’s uncle) came intot he Powel house on July 5, and was saying that Conan comes by every once in a while.  – I hope he does.

Conan O’brian is married to Elizabeth Ann Powel (since 2002).

Conan O'brian his wife

Elizabeth Ann Powel is related to the late, great Samuel Powel (1738 – 1793).  He was a colonial and post-colonial mayor of Philadelphia.  He served as mayor from 1775–1776 and 1789–1790.

The Grave of Samuel Powel and his wife Elizabeth (Willing) Powel are still in Christ Church Burial Grounds and I was just there not too long ago.

Samuel and Elizabeth Powel's graves

This old-time connection was one I was not previously aware of, but it is quite an interesting one.  I wonder if I will get a celebrity sighting by the end of the summer.  We shall see.

NJ Finally Proof that we don’t smell

So… After years and years of horrid propaganda from the citizens of other states (especially Pennsylvania – the conspirators of a rumored plot to blow up Jersey in an attempt to secure its own beach) New Jersey finally has a candle of solace to hold to the wind of doubters.

New Jersey has finally gotten a glimpse of redemption.  Unfortunately, nobody from outside New Jersey will ever read the article proving that Jersey has the cleanest air in the country.

See for yourself – http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2009/top25s/qualitylife/cleanair.html

Clean Air New Jersey

If you will notice – 9 of the top 10 of the CLEANEST AIR IN THE COUNTRY towns are in NJ.  Thats really all that needs to be said about that.  I feel validated, as well as completely confident that I live in a wonderful state that does not smell and is shaped nothing like an armpit.

Thank you New Jersey, for finally giving us a leg to stand on in the fight for your clean-air honor.