philadelphia freedom...

i just had a super fantastic excellent amazing weekend with two of my favorite people -- krista and paul! there were adventures and oohs and ahs and a helluva lot of the philadelphia freedom.

for example...

friday night there were lots of mussels and belgian beers at monk's. and then more drinks at fergie's.

saturday we got breakfast at 10th street pour house, then walked through various historic philadelphia sights, then went to the constitution center. we had to wade through various "free mumia" protests and various "welcome america" happenings, but we made it to the constitution center, all ready for the freedom! and the liberty! and the justice! for all!

instead, however, it was a big ol' propagandist, revisionist history piece of crap-ola. ugh. friends? do NOT go to the national constitution center. it will only make you sad. and whatever you do, do NOT purchase a membership. even though it's only $25, it's not worth it. sure, they give you a pocket constitution and a pin that says "enter as a visitor. leave as a citizen." (which krista said should be the slogan for the new immigration bill), but the place is a holy hell hole with a rose-colored glasses view of american history. yikes. yikes yikes yikes!

however, there is one redeeming characteristic. and no, i'm not talking about the signers' hall, where there are life size sculptures of all the signers of the constitution standing around. i'm talking about the various comment boards through the museum. these boards have questions posed on them, and post-it notes for visitors to add their two cents. for example, "do you feel that justice is available to all?" one commenter wrote, "not for the unborn". so what did i write? "not for the undead, either." another board said, "what makes you feel free?" krista wrote, "the NSA". and the good news? the constitution center will record our comments to keep track of "public opinion." oh, goody!

from the constitution center, we walked to reading terminal market, got some sandwiches, then wandered around a bit more. something i learned over the weekend is when on vacation with two urban planners with a camera, expect there to be lots of pictures taken of plazas, parks, city signage. nerd-o-rama!

saturday night was the source of the real philadelphia freedom: the fireworks at penn's landing! cece peniston and the ohio players provided the pre-pyrotechnics entertainment. but what was really perplexing was the music that accompanied the fireworks. erm, um, uh... tunes ranged from "surfin' USA" to a beyonce knowles song to "somewhere over the rainbow" to, erm, "three times a lady" (?!?!) to "lucy in the sky with diamonds". and, of course, true to form for all philadelphia events, we heard the soothing sounds of elton john's "philadelphia freedom". oh yes. good thing, too, since i've done way too much bitching about that song to krista, and if it hadn't been played, i'd have looked like a big ol' liar. so, thanks, philly! thanks for the freedom!

also, i might have been a bit of an ass saturday night at sugar mom's. warning to all -- don't lean on emily's bar stool. she gets testy. thanks to k & p for putting up with my shenanigans. and thanks to krista for voting me "most likely to become the crazy old lady who writes letters to newspaper editors and various congressmen". how true it is...

k & p also brought me my star wars trivial pursuit game. drew and mark may be the only people in this city who will play with me, but i owe mark an ass-whoopin' anyway. and ain't no way drew knows more than i do. let the games begin!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, EVERYONE! to my friends in peaks island, maine? i wish i could be there for the big feed and the parade! to my friends in pittsburgh, enjoy the fireworks at the confluence! to my people in mississippi, i hope they'll still do the fireworks on the hurricane-katrina'ed beach. and to everybody everywhere, hooray for liberty!

and i even said that last part with a straight face! i mean it.