why everyone should die, or alternatively, the best birthday in recent memory

last friday-saturday i met up with dominique and some of her collegues who were in philly for an anthropology conference. contrary to popular belief, i did not go to new york to see chocolate jesus, though i bet he was delicious. certainly much more delicious than the consecrated-bread-and-wine jesus of communion. the weekend started out ok, but as i reached the outside of philly i hit all kinds of traffic because people were just driving like complete assholes. at several points i was completely stopped. i realize that i was going into the city on a friday, but seriously people, my weekend will not be enhanced by seeing the smashed up truck headed westbound. at least not unless someone died and i could steal their bones for dominique. everyone was not only alive, but also well, yet we proceeded at a snail's pace.

but finally i reached the city and things looked up. i met dominique at her hotel, and we chatted for a few minutes. she then gave me a little birthday bag which included, among other things, tiger woods pga tour 2007 for xbox, which i am now addicted to. then we went to dinner at a nice little place. she got chicken covered with nuts, and i got chicken pot pie. it was delicious, but i should've gone with the shepard's pie. oh well, next time. it was nice to get some time alone with her in the city.

from the restaurant we headed a few blocks over to an irish pub. we had planned on getting a drink or two then meeting up with everyone else at another bar. we sat down and ordered drinks and talked. at 10 we had to vacate our table so a dj could setup, so we found a new table upstairs in this cool room with tables that looked like they were just cross sections of trees and chairs with similar backs. we had the whole room to ourselves, despite downstairs and the bar upstairs having a good number of people. instead of meeting up with everyone we just stayed there because it was so much fun.

finally, towards the end of the night we met annie out at the sheraton bar. the drinks were more expensive but the atmosphere was nice. there were still a lot of anthropologists milling around in the lobby despite it being after midnight. i have a special place in my heart for hotel bars.

saturday we decided to go to a museum and grab some lunch on the way. being in philly, i of course wanted to get a cheesesteak. we just stopped at the first place we saw, a little diner type place. and still, the cheesesteak was fantastic. all you hear is true, they're damn good in philly. we even had to go back to the hotel before the museum so i could change my pants. true story.*

so we went to mutter museum at the college of physicians of philadelphia, which is a museum of medical oddities. awesome stuff like conjoined twins, weird bone formations, and anencephaly babies. it was great, and sometimes hilarious. for example, they had these really old metal tube-like things (dominique maybe you can refresh my memory as to what they're called) that doctors (or pervs) used to use to examine vaginas. good times.

finally, saturday night before i headed back, dominique and i went to dinner at a great seafood restaurant a few blocks from the hotel. the food was wonderful. dominique got crabs, and was nice enough to pass a little bit on to me. i have to admit though, it was good.

although the fact that i admitted to enjoying a part of pennsyltucky does make me want to vomit a lot, all in all it was a fantastic 2 day trip. i had a really good time. thank you dominique!



*story may not be true