Streets of Philadelphia

When I was bound for Philadelphia I was urged to, above all else, have gelato at Capogiro. It *was* delicious, people. I had three flavors: hazelnut, rum and burnt sugar. Three kinds of perfect. Just amazing ... rich and super creamy, but still light and sweet and not too heavy. It was fantastic.

So before I came to Philadelphia, I didn't expect to care about it one way or another -- I was just there for a summit. But I really liked it! From what I saw, anyway. I spent this first day in this room ...

... And, in that room, I did get some good ideas for CABO, and I met some nice people, including a guy who looked so eerily like Brad Pitt that when I started to ask, "Does anyone ever tell you that you look like ..." he correctly completed my sentence. Anyway, most of what I saw of Philadelphia was the night life. But when I visit a new city I do like to try to get an impression of what everyday life would be like: Is stuff expensive, what do the buildings look like, what's the food like, what do the people look and act like, etc. And on those fronts I have nothing but nice things to say ... plus there's clearly an awesomely vibrant gay scene.

I partied pretty hard two nights in a row. The first evening began at a welcome reception that included not only all the gays there for the summit, but some other gays employed by corporate partners, just there to mingle. I latched onto a couple people my age, and after the reception we hit the town, starting at Stir and ending up in a couple other places I didn't catch the name of because I was just stumbling around with people who knew the city.

In retrospect, I drank too much. I can recall being alone on the street, on the way home, offering money to a woman in exchange for a cigarette. I soon learned she was from New Zealand and proceeded to show her all my amazing New Zealand photos still in my phone. Soon, she had run away. I probably scared her to death. Anyway, it was great! Really loved it.

The second late night was with my friend Elizabeth, who was an intern at the paper at which I worked in Corpus Christi, way back in 2002, and then it turned out we both lived in the DFW area for the three years I was there. Now she's moved to Philadelphia. After I had a truly delicious three-course dinner at Vallani with the CCBO folks, I met up with Elizabeth at a Fox & Hound, where we had a few beers. I got lost coming home, but nobody mugged or stab me. I'm not as confident I could say the same in New Haven.

Now that I've had a very good first impression, I look forward to going back. I will hereby be spending almost every waking moment from now until class Monday morning doing work .... it's a pile.