Philly for (almost) free

In a reprise of events from this time last year, JG and I spent a long weekend in Philadelphia under the guise of helping to chaperone a trip of sixty high school students. The kids are incredibly motivated, well-mannered students, and they were in Philadelphia to participate in a Model United Nations conference. While they were on lock down in a hotel, trying to submit resolutions for their various committees on climate control and economic policy, the adults took turns gallivanting around the city on the school’s dime. Aside from a bowling excursion and drinks with dinner, the entire weekend was covered. Not a bad deal.

Other than frightening logistics including shepherding all sixty students from a school bus to a local transit train and then down four city blocks to their hotel, the weekend was a lovely departure from the norm. Plus, I was able to take my first days off from the new job and break in the new bag. That said, why am I so exhausted? Due to my low frequency of brain-synapse firing, I must defer to the bulleted list for the weekend’s events.

Thursday

• Wake up at 5:20am so that I have enough time to shower and accompany JG to school. Bitterly acknowledge the irony that on my first day off at the new job, I am getting up ridiculously early. Cruel.
• Camp out in JG’s teacher lounge for the rest of the day. Get through forty pages of Anna Karenina. Explain repeatedly that I am not a substitute teacher nor an observing college student.
• Meet in the school lobby in the early afternoon and herd kids onto two school buses. Count them over and over because JG and I keep getting different numbers. I finally make them count off on their own, military-style, to get a final number. My count is vindicated.
• After corralling the kids from the school buses, to the transit train, and then to their hotel, eating a buffet dinner, and a enduring painful opening ceremony, I collapse on the bed.

Friday

• JG gets a phone call at 5:30am informing him that school has been canceled back home. We wake up to a gray skyline and cold, cold rain.
• We accompany a group of kids to the Franklin Institute, and I get freaked out by the Chaperone sticker.
• Lunch on our own at a fabulous Italian restaurant. We marvel at the quiet after the hours spent with shrieking school groups for the morning.
• Back to the hotel for our night “on duty.” We order in from the hotel’s seafood restaurant and I eat every bite of my crab macaroni and cheese.
• The other chaperones return from dinner out, and JG and I beat them soundly in Cranium Wow, despite my inability to communicate “hamster wheel” via silent gestures.

Saturday

• The kids are “in committee” all day, so the chaperones take advantage of the clear, blue skies, and go out for lunch and bowling at Lucky Strike. I have a yummy sandwich of turkey, brie, and apple butter on a ciabatta roll.
• My bowling is consistently mediocre; I rack up scores of 82 and 81, even with my improbable strike in the first game. I curse my weak fingers.
• Dinner out at Chris’ Jazz Cafe, an appropriately smoky place with tasty food, great music, and a mighty strong mojito.

Sunday

• Join JG to guard the group’s luggage. Thankfully, it means that we don’t need to sit through the excruciating back-patting of the closing ceremonies. I start my dozenth NYT crossword puzzle for the weekend, only to be stymied yet again.
• We successfully marshal the kids from the hotel to the train station and on to the train. JG and I plan on ordering takeout for dinner. I declare the new bag a success.
• Ted is oh-so-happy to see us, after spending the weekend with JG’s sister, who was kind enough to dogsit. I confess to a tiny bit of heart-melting when he put his paws right on my lap in greeting, tail wagging away.
• Dig in to Chinese food as the Super Bowl starts.
• The sales lead commercial with the broken-English-speaking pandas completely offends me, but then I’m charmed by the Stewie-Underdog-Charlie Brown Coke commercial.
• Upload pictures as I vacantly glance up at the game every so often, and then I am astounded by the outcome because I missed everything leading up to it.

- - - - -

This post was drastically delayed due to my being barred from making my Philly photos public during my lunch hour. Surprise! Flickr is now on the list of my company’s blocked websites. Wordpress, Blogger, and GoodReads all joined that list as of this morning, and I am undecided about whether I should be paranoid about this development.