On Couches and Potatoes

I woke up today on my friend's girlfriend's couch.

I hate sleep-overs generally, but that was before I graduated and moved to the medical school campus in Germantown, aka the suburban part of Philadelphia, with a ghetto subsection. The pedestrian is a rare animal and any form of entertainment, whether that be theater, restaurant, or shop is a caravan length a-ways. There are too many trees for an alleged city and the stoplights change as quickly as the driver who switches lanes without signaling (although I guess that happens everywhere).

My past few years have been spent largely in West Philadelphia and while I can't claim to be a native, I can claim a deeply-rooted affection for a place that has allowed me to thrive and to better develop who I am. That being said, I miss West Philadelphia more than I've ever missed anyone in my life. I wish that I could travel back in time to where I could be happy in that moment, content on my rooftop, watching traffic rush past as the sun set behind the skyline, where the only stars that twinkled were from the buildings that illuminated the sky. I miss being able to walk out of my apartment at 10:30 and being able to see a movie, to walk to a diner afterward, and to not be the only one doing so.

Now any nighttime experience I have is limited to between when I get off work at the hospital library and when I take the twenty minute shuttle to the medical school campus. I will say that being a part-time pseudo-librarian actually does give me some satisfaction, although most of the books are medical and sciencey in nature. In an extremely corny way, helping someone find a book they want to read (even for school), thrills me and I do put a little too much effort into a job that pays pretty little. However, I am only taking one class so far (gross anatomy...Mer, I empathize so much as I didn't eat turkey for weeks) which means I'm freer to do other things. I'm trying to learn how to play guitar and maybe starting ballroom dancing. Maybe. The Penn kids take it really seriously and do competitions and things, so I'm pretty hesitant.

The only other noteworthy thing about today was falling asleep on my friend's couch while reading The Picture of Dorian Gray (an excellent book so far, which I must now finish), after being unwittingly introduced to Hannibal Lecter the night before. Upon waking, I spent the morning savoring just sitting on the couch and watching TV, two necessary items severely lacking in my own life. To pass the time I watched: Miss Representation a documentary of women and the media, The Goonies, and the beginning of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Gene Wilder, of course). I had somehow always thought the Goonies was about Cyndi Lauper and aliens, but I was pleasantly wrong. I didn't even realize that Mikey was baby Samwise Gamgee until the end of the movie! It was a beautiful thing!

Something else beautiful was how my friend and his girlfriend made me breakfast and lunch. I am generally too lazy to cook anything; I usually order $9 pizza on Monday night and it lasts me till Friday, whereupon I go home to eat something vegetable. It was nice eating something not from a box and before you judge me for my laziness, I DID do the dishes.

Breafast: Bacon, eggs, buttered toast and irish breakfast tea
Lunch: homemade tacos and coke
Dinner: leftover nachos and brownies