swingchickie | sunday night catch-up

wow, what a wonderful trip. it's good to be home, but i had such a blast in philly... i don't even know where to start, i guess i'll just go chronologically.

so, friday i took a vacation day, and pretty much did my own thing all day. no people to hang out with, no obligations... i just figured i would go where the winds blew me. my mom just didn't get it... she kept calling my cell going, "are you okay? do you want me to meet up with you somewhere?" and i just couldn't make her understand that i was sooooo happy being on my own. first i went to ikea and spent a couple of hours looking for stuff for the apartment... i needed a big CD rack, as i'd let the ex take ours when he moved... and i wanted a little sofa or chair to go with the other stuff in the "austin powers room". i found the CD rack, and a cute little red futon thingy... and i had to hold myself back from buying a ton of other things, like a chair and little table that both light up from the inside (found in the children's section. one of these days i'll grow up, i swear).

spent the afternoon on south street, shopping and people-watching. i went into all the stores i used to frequent in college - -zipperhead, the mood, garland of letters, etc. etc. but one thing i didn't remember is how many freaking awesome shoe stores there are!!! good lord... hundreds of sexy shoes, with sky-high heels and rhinestones and zippers and all types of accoutrements. i was in heaven. i was a good girl, though... after my ikea shopping spree, i reined myself in and saved my shoe money for the cowboy boots i needed. i went into gilly jeans with an idea of what i wanted... i'd gone on their website ahead of time to check out their stock. so i walked in and told the guy i was looking for a new pair of boots... he looked me up and down and said, "i have a pair that would be perfect for you." he went over to a shelf, reached up, and pulled down the EXACT pair i'd liked on their website -- deerskin, cream-colored with pale blue and pink stitching. they were gorgeous, and fit perfectly. i tried on another 10 or so pairs, but none of them fit or looked like that first pair. i guess it was meant to be!

the evening was spent with peter ("coffee date guy"). lucky for me, he had the evening off, so we had made plans for dinner. i met up with him at his store, and he was right there in the doorway with a box of godiva truffles for me *drool*. we waved goodbye to the other store folks (who seem to be getting quite a kick out of us, it's a riot) and headed off to the restaurant. we had a lovely dinner, lovely mostly due to the fact that i got to see him again... and that i got to point and laugh after he catapulted a chunk of chicken onto the carpet, barely missing a passing waitress. *chortle* after dinner we managed to get some alone-time... we got to envelop ourselves in our whole new-love thing, talking for hours and looking into each other's eyes... it was so special. and i swear, there were a few times when i looked at him, really looked into his eyes, and i couldn't breathe. that sounds so much like a bubblegum pop song, i know... but wow. after everything he's dealt with over the years, i feel like i just want to pour myself into him, fill him up with all of the joy i've been blessed with... and he's so lovely to be with, it amazes me that he still has so much to give.

so, after a reluctant parting friday evening, i slept in and hung out with mom for a while. in the afternoon, i went to visit a buddy of mine, P, who lives about an hour north... the plan was to go to "musikfest", a week-long musc festival in bethlehem, PA. i love the town where P lives... it's in the middle of freaking nowhere, nothing but farmland and trees... and people have chickens running around their porches everywhere you go. AND, there's a company there that roasts cocoa beans for chocolate companies (like M&Ms and such), so the entire town smells like baking brownies. so we drove out of chocolate-ville and up to bethlehem, which would be a great place to live if it weren't so damn FAR! the architecture is gorgeous, the people friendly, and there's an adorable town center with cool restaurants and shops. like a more elegant version of where i live now. for one week a year, the entire town gets turned into a concert venue, with tents set up everywhere with different kinds of music. we hit the polka tent and did a couple turns on the floor, gyrated to a salsa band while drinking frozen hurricanes, and watched some octogenarians doing really bad country karaoke. we discovered the kids' tent, where a grown man was jumping around and singing children's songs in a rainbow-colored outfit. ugh. i'm sure that poor man goes home every night and drinks himself into a stupor. at one point, he cheerily shouted a phrase i hope i will never have to say: "okay! i'm going to change harmonicas, and then dance in a circle!" *shudder*.

we stayed a bit into the evening, so we could check out the red elvises. i'd heard of them before, but hadn't had the chance to see them live... they're a russian rock & roll act that is out of this world. the tent was PACKED, probably about 5,000 people were crammed into a space designed to hold 3,000. we rocked out for a while, but gave up trying to even see the band because of the crowds. and the food... oh god, the FOOD... every kind of fair/carnival food you could think of... we had funnel cake, gyros... and my new personal favorite: DEEP-FRIED OREOS. *drool* they take an oreo, dip it in funnel cake batter, and deep fry it... the heat from the frying melts the cream filling, which soaks into the cookie part and turns it into the consistency of a half-baked brownie. so it's like biting into a piece of funnel cake and having a hot, gooey brownie inside. the only problem is, they're unbearably rich... they gave us like 5 or 6, and by the 2nd one i wanted to die. like, it was so good, i almost barfed and kept on eating. instead, the 2 of them just sat in my stomach like a lead weight for the rest of the night.

so, the philly vacation, oreos and all, was a success. and there was a lovely ending to it... i was able to see peter one last time before i left, as i stopped by his store on the drive back to boston. he gave me one last perfect kiss, that absolutely buckled my knees... and then i set off on the remaining 5-hour drive, smiling.