Last week I managed to squeeze in a few activities after work, even though I had to work extra long hours due to one of my part timers calling out! Grrr! I finally went to Pho Hoa to see how it compares to it's across the street competition, and it was pretty tasty, but still gotta love the Nam Phong. On Thursday I met Chris Bell for a movie, Helvetica, that was previewing at the Rotunda before it airs on WHYY next month. There was a panel of designers et al to discuss the movie afterward, and came to find out very quickly that they were pretty full of themselves. But Chris & I stayed for most of it anyway...mostly texting each other about these panelist, inappropriately giggling, etc.Friday after work, I squeezed in some friend time with Brian Cons, Phil & Ellen, and their baby Sandro before picking up my friend Cole, who came to visit me from NY. He's a friend from home (CA) that just moved to NY this past summer and he had never been to Philly! It was "First Friday" here in Philly on Friday, so many of the art galleries were having open houses with new exhibits. We managed to catch a few art openings including the preview for the auction at Space 1026. I saw a pretty sweet shirt that read..."Barak Obama & The Phillies...Total Winners" with an animated drawing of Barak surrounded by a bunch of Phillies. Good stuff. Cole and I were both starving, and I tried to get in to one of my fave places in chi-town, Banana Leaf, for dinner, but the line was out the door so we hopped on the subway to meet some friends down at the P.O.P.E to eat and grab some drinks. From there we proceeded to Ray's Happy Birthday Bar, to check out Karaoke, and finally ended up meeting up with Bryan P. at Yakitori Boy for even more Karaoke. Double karaoke = win!
Then came Saturday: The best way to see Philadelphia is via bicycle, so I borrowed my friend Michelle's bike, and Cole and I went out for the day's adventures despite the bitter cold. We really packed it in: South Street, Queen Village area, Pat's to get him a cheese steak, Italian Market, to I-Goldberg to get Cole his 1st scarf!!, top of the Loew's Hotel for a view of the city, Love Park, The Philadelphia Museum steps/Rocky statue, to the ICA for the R.Crumb exhibit, Rittenhouse Park area, Whole Foods for a free Holiday food tasting, Liberty Lands Park for the Eco Solarbration, and finally back to 1310 where we made vegan mac-n-cheese! And Cole got to see his first East Coast snow flurries! We watched Willy Wonka, took a power nap, then met up with Lina & Jeffrey to dance at The Barbary for Ten Commandments Reggae/Soul party. Ricky J, my roommate who was out of town this weekend, has been talking about going for a while now, so I got to scout it out for him. We danced our faces off and I gave it an A+ report. I can't wait to go back!
This morning we went to our local favorite brunch spot, The Memphis Tap Room where my Tommy and Lina joined us. My other roommate KB came with us to Old City for the day to shove some US history at Cole before he left back to NY, drink some hot cider at The Franklin Fountain, and buy some records for my new record player!
Super packed weekend of good timez!
