Philly Journal, 12/29/13

Four things:

1.  Being in the city of the sports teams I root for continues to get more and more cool.  With tonight’s upcoming Eagles game in Dallas being for the conference title, this city is downright electric.  I just rode my bike home from work (it’s about two hours before kickoff) and boy-howdy…people are out everywhere, and yes, they are drinking, etc, but there is no feeling of impending doom or danger.  There is just this energy in the air, like an uncorked celebration.  Of course, if we lose, it will suck.  But now, this right now, is a great argument in favor of the communal bonding agent that professional sports can be.

 

2.  One of the things that has surprised me about living in the city (and maybe you won’t find this surprising at all) is just how incredibly hip it makes me feel.  To some of you who’ve lived in cities before and think it’s no big deal, or are just hip as heck all the time anyway, this sentiment may make me seem like a doofus.  And don’t get me wrong: I fully expected to feel hip.  Just not THIS HIP.  It’s not just that I live in the city, but also that I am the store manager of a Starbucks in the city (yes, I’m mentioning it publicly for once).  About once every two days, I’m in the middle of something and I have to stop and think to myself, wow, this is me, doing this right now.  I know I know, I’m talking like I’m a rock star or something, and sure, I’m probably still functioning well below my potential in life, but damn if I don’t think this particular version of my life is something special.

3.  Dear Philadelphia bus riders: why do you stand in the middle of the street all the time, looking off into the distance as though it will make the bus appear?  Do you not see me riding a bike directly at you?

4.  With New Years approaching, and with the fact that I live right in the middle of Mummer country, I am beginning to hear the bands practicing from various buildings as I ride my bike around.  It is a very neat thing to experience.  Just now, as I mentioned earlier I just rode home from work.  It is dark and a bit cold but not frigid, and the night was electric already, and every 3 or 4 blocks the sound of a horn or a fiddle would float out to me from otherwise unassuming buildings.