Abi Mlo
I start the day with movement. A stretch, a walk to a pilates studio. Afterwards, I’m at CVS returning an item and leaving with four bags of Valentine’s Day chocolate because I can’t resist anything packaged in pink and red hearts. I work from home, I work from home, I work from home. Where has the time gone, I wonder as I’m making my lunch at 2 p.m. My lunch is a piping hot comfort meal, MAMA shrimp tom yum noodles, poached eggs, scallions.
I’m exhausted from the lack of sleep I got the night before, so I nestle myself in a nap. Today is the most un-Friday Friday.
My partner comes home. We get ready to leave for downtown, where we will meet our friends to exchange meme T-shirts and prowl the city for a decent drink and some fries on the side, please. First stop: PhotoLounge, where a photo I took hangs in the “Best of the Year” gallery. It’s a photo of two telephone booths in CDMX, the photo’s color vibrant the way everything is there.
Hungry, we attempt Monk’s Cafe (it’ll be a 30-45 minute wait), VINYL (they’re checking IDs, turn around), and Good Dog Bar (we can’t let your friend in if she’s not 21) before finding ourselves in Misconduct Tavern. I enjoy the first hot dog I have had since I can’t remember when, and fries, potato chips, jumbo buffalo wings, celery, carrots, crab mac and cheese.
We debate if we want to dance or play arcade games. I get distracted by the pink neon glaring from across the street. Soon, I’m in Pink Elephant “just popping in to take a look”. We order cocktails. We take photos. Towards the back, along the perimeter of a full-length mirror guests have stuck heart-shaped post-its, onto which they’d written their “reflections of love”. I read words of affirmation, fortune cookie-esque scribblings, and the ancient proverbs of Women (“fuck these men”). Man, I love being a woman.
The rest of the night is spent losing poorly at Donkey Kong, Splatterhouse, Street Fighter, and winning the high score of the night at Mappy. A childhood favorite of mine. Where has the time gone, I wonder as we’re crawling into our Uber at 12:34 p.m. I say goodbye to my friends.
Abi was born and raised in North Carolina and has called Philly home since 2020. Her favorite spots in Philly are Clark Park, Green Line Cafe, Union Transfer, Mostly Books, and any Little Free Library.
