Lancaster weekend, Italians, stuff

This weekend we went to Lancaster since it was a long weekend.
On Fri morning we got going a little later than we should have to catch the 10 AM bus to Philly. We arrived at the New Century Travel office at 10:01 and there was this huge crowd of about 60 people standing around a bus. We gave up on the 10 and went in and bought tickets. Luckily the Chinatown buses leave every half hour. A little inquiry outside informed us that the huge crowd was waiting for DC, suckers. Suddenly a guy at the door shouted Phiradelphia! and we ran onboard, leaving a minute later.
I called Christina to see if she and Curt were there to meet us and she told me that they had been about ready to get going when there was a shooting on her block, so they were still at home waiting for the police to disperse. We went off to find the great coffee and chocolate shop where we had met Christina last time in town. After completing a few circles we found it, only to be saddened by the fact that it had closed, so we waited for them on a planter.
They took us to this delicious Ethiopian restaurant in University City, and we got to meet their new baby Elizia. What is now a recurring theme with visiting them, the food took ridiculously long and we had to shovel it down and race out of there to try to catch our 3:00 train. We arrived at 2:58 to find that the train was not posted on the board. The information guy told us that they were on a weekend schedule (even though the website had said otherwise) and that the next train was at 3:45, thank god, because we would have never had time to get tickets. The people who sold me coffee at the station were strangely friendly. You know, like they really really meant it.
We arrived uneventfully at Lancaster and Melissa picked us up. We relaxed a bit and went out to First Friday – Lancaster art galleries are open late the first fri of the month and there is music and other stuff – which was ridiculously crowded. We also checked out the new convention center which is actually kind of cool, despite being a huge waste of money in my opinion.
After that we went out to a couple bars and hung out and had some food and beers. I was shocked and overjoyed to be charged $11.25 for a beer and two mixed drinks. Living in NYC will have me loving everywhere else price-wise. I ended up calling Andrew, an old buddy whom I hadn’t seen in quite awhile and he came out. Turns out he’s married now and he is thinking about getting into travel nursing.
On Saturday we went to Market, of course, and I got Lebanon Bologna and Wendy Jo’s cookies, of course. We then walked to Binn’s Park where we were entertained by this dog attacking the water sprays in this artistic ground level fountain where the water constantly changes.
After that we packed up a bag and went to Central Park for a picnic. It was awesome and I really need to do more picnics.
One of the reasons I came was so that we could go mulberry picking and do jam, but Melissa had checked out the situation and apparently most of the berries had been knocked down by rain. We almost didn’t go, but decided to at the last minute. We were really glad we did because, although we didn’t get a lot of mulberries, we found the motherlode of raspberries and wineberries, which I hadn’t eaten before. We spent over two hours picking them from around this crappy apartment complex where people are apparently too stupid to realize they have an insane berry land right outside their home.
Sunday morning we checked out this new coffee shop, Chestnut Hill, which Julie and I had waited and waited for to open, but it hadn’t until we were long gone. It is really nice with a great outdoor area and good coffee. After that, Melissa gave me her keys and went to
church while I met up with Angela, a professor at a local uni. I had met her in a county planning class and then presented at one of her classes. We had breakfast at Wish You Were Here, a fav place for breakfast in town. It was really nice seeing her again and chatting about Lancaster, university classes and the way things are done at unis.
I then tried unsuccessfully to get more work done before meeting Bill for lunch and meeting yet another first baby.
After lunch we went to Chestnut Hill again since they were having a one-year anniversary including live music and a half-priced drink which included two shots of espresso and a couple scoops of ice cream. Holy shit was it good, although the same cannot be said about the band. We then went to Buchanan Park where there was supposed to be pick up and I was hoping to get a couple points in before taking off. Unfortunately people were lame and traveling or whatever and there were not enough of us to get a game and all we did was toss.
All in all I had a really nice time and it was good to realize that I had made some pretty good friends while in Lancaster, despite the lack of people my age there at the time.
We got more travel luck throughout the rest of our journey home, timing wise, not stupid diseased ho-bag sitting behind wise. We got to the Lancaster station within five min of the train, then at Philly we got into what seemed like an insane line, but were lucky to only have to wait 15 min through one bus. The enormous woman in front of us claimed to have waited three buses. In Manhattan we were lucky to be dropped off at the 1 train instead of under the Manhattan Bridge where the buses end. This way we could take that to the L instead of dealing with the J and bus. Also, the L pulled up right as we came down the stairs, which is remarkable because it was late on Sun night.
There was this completely horrible fat Hispanic (and for those sensitive types, no this isn't a bad thing, just a descriptor) woman sitting in front of Brandy on the Philly-NYC bus. I don't get to honestly call someone completely useless, but she was worse than useless. She had these 6" nails, which to me says, "I don't have to work because I'm a lazy fat piece of shit and my man is a fucking tool." She almost took Brandy's eyes out with those talons when she reached behind her head to stretch and Brandy was leaning forward. Then she spent most of the time talking on the phone about useless shit, which wouldn't have been terrible because her volume actually was reasonable, but this meant she was ignoring her travel partner the whole time which is just plain rude, and the worst was that she was leaning all the way forward into the corner of the seat in front of her and window, which put her about two inches from the ear of the poor enormous lady from the line, who had heretofore been sleeping. When she wasn't chatting, she was stretching her fat ass by grabbing the seat in front of her and pulling herself up with much force, shaking the seat. To top it all off, she kept hacking these death rattles of disease without doing much to cover her mouth. I was happy to be behind her though, rather than in front.
We are trying to get replace Dan and we met two girls we liked last week. We deliberated through the weekend and finally just went with the first one we met. She came over on Mon and brought the check and hung out for a bit. I was starting to get some second thoughts because she was exhibiting some maybe crazy behavior, and then the next day she sends a message to Brandy about how she is too much of a neat nick and we probably won't make a good fit and how she felt rushed and jumped into it, for chissake. I mean, great I'm glad she is honest and we don't have to deal with her, but damn get your life together and figure your shit out so you don't waste other people's time. Of course the other girl was no longer available and now we are getting all sorts of response from the last minute suckers. Ugh.
Last night we met Stefano, one of the Italians who came with me on the move out here, and his girlfriend Elena for dinner at Moto. It was excellent and pricey as always. After that I showed them Barcade, which they loved and then we came back to our roof for some beer and relaxation. There was a cool storm blowing through and we got to watch lightning and cool clouds in the distance without getting wet.
Turns out tonight is my birthday and we will be going to Lauren's since she is having a BBQ, and then we will probably go out after that. I feel kind of lame b/c I haven't invited anyone out, but meh. Birthday, whatever.
I just found out that one of the Italians from study abroad is getting married while I am in Europe, so I will probably have to make a detour to go down for that, which means no Freiburg, but it will be great to see a lot of other people again.