Blithe Ophelia Gray

i wake up around 8:30am and feel a little pissed off that it’s already hot outside.

i have a glass of cold brew (with light milk) and a toasted sesame bagel (with cc) from whole foods.

i scroll on my phone and mindlessly like posts that i don’t even remember 5 minutes later.

i get ready to pick up my best friend. he just moved to point breeze (or newbold? who knows the specific lines between these things) and his car is in the shop, so we made plans to run errands.

at 9:45am i decide to take broad street on my way there and three separate intersections are completely blocked off for some reason. 

i annoy myself by driving a little slower than usual because i’m not entirely sure where i’m going (haven’t been to his new place yet) and i make fuller stops at the stop signs than i usually do.

you’d think this would pay off – being a better, safer driver – but actually, as soon as i did this the third time, a septa bus blew a stop sign as i was taking my turn and it almost t-boned me. 

they beep loud as fuck at me and i was really mad about it. like, as if i did something wrong when u almost killed me????? whatever. fuck off.

i finally pick up max at like 10ish and we encounter ten thousand more street blockages, so getting to the south philly walmart felt like an actual entire thing. 

south philly walmart pictured

we finally made it to south philly walmart at almost 10:30. it is really busy as per usual.

i usually won’t go into the walmart here because there is something about the walmart design that gives me actual psychic damage… but i decide to give it a chance today since max was going to be in there for a bit and it is too hot to sit in the car. i feel a little seduced by the cheap grocery prices and the grand product selections…

after we leave, we decide to head to home depot to get new keys since it was right there. 

the guy who helps us make our new keys was wearing one of those shirts you’d see advertised to you by AI pages on facebook – the back of it said “some monsters live under people’s beds, but mine live inside my head” in an aggressive looking font and a skeleton standing over an empty bed. 

he is very nice in helping me make my new pink key that says princess on it.  

making it back over to point breeze/newbold is less obnoxious on the way back, thank god. max’s street was blocked off though, so he has to carry a thousand groceries down the block. 

at about 11:40am i am trying to find parking in my neighborhood which is way worse than usual for some reason. i circle my usual 3 block radius twice and choose a not great spot and sit and ponder my options for a moment. i call my gramma and freak out about the fact that i can’t find good parking and then i decide to do the loop one more time. 

somehow in that time a spot opened directly in front of my apartment and i get it. i silently rejoice and bring my shit inside. 

i quickly get ready for the day because i have a train to nyc in 2 hours. taking a day trip.

as i’m getting ready for this, i’m thinking about how i’m going to have to write for this project, and thinking about how ridiculous it is that i ended up going to nyc for my day in the life in philly-- but like, whatever. it is what it is. my friend has an opening in chelsea tonight and i had to be there! 

by the time i’m done getting ready, it’s like, 1pm, and i don’t have time to make lunch so i get some snacks at the corner store and decide to just take an uber because i didn’t feel like dealing with the mfl today.

i get to the train station at 1:30ish and decide to also buy an egg salad sandwich from pret a manger. it had arugula on it and was surprisingly good. the train is delayed 15 minutes. 

the train arrives

i go to nyc. i look at way too much art. 

a selfie in the print center bathroom. the show there was okay.

and then i drink exhibition opening wine with many friends from tyler who showed up for our friend claire. we all have a great time.

claire with her flowers and her husband michael in front of the gallery her work is in.

i make my way back to the train station around 8pm with one of these friends and i see my first firefly. 

even though i tend to have a great time in nyc, i always find myself comparing it to philly. like, yeah, sure, whatever, its nice here… but also i kind of hate it? the magic of nyc never really got to me like that. i feel like this is a normal take but i always feel weird admitting it. 

unfortunately for me, apparently something catastrophic happens with MY specific train back, and it gets delayed an entire hour and a half. i sit at a bar with my friend and think about how fucking exhausted i am.

finally, at 11:30pm, i am able to get back on the train to philly and we don’t arrive until 1:38am. i truly can’t remember being as tired as i am in this moment in any recent memory and i am really mad because now it was technically my birthday and i’m spending my past-midnight-birthday chime sitting on a fucking amtrak train. like god.

a picture i took as an expression of my frustration for having stared at this exact view for like 2 hours.

somehow i am able to snag a reasonably priced uber immediately upon getting out despite every other tourist on that train probably doing the same thing since all public transit was done for the night at that point. and the guy ends up being one of the nicest, kindest uber drivers i have ever encountered in my life. thanks again alfred! 

during the drive home i admire the specific city quiet of center city at 2am and was thankful for it to be a quiet night on my block. i get home at exactly 2:05am and immediately collapse into my bed. (thankful to be back in philly.) 

blithe is interested in finding the perfect cortado in philly. if you have any leads, let her know at @blitheopheliagrey