Jack

8:20am Get up, get dressed. I’ve had a little head cold and congestion the past two days, but thankfully I wake up feeling back to normal. I quickly get out of bed and throw some clothes on. I’m wearing a longsleeve Pharaoh Sanders t-shirt, J Crew fisherman cable sweater, black Levi’s 505’s with a small hole above the right knee, and white uniqlo socks. 

8:30am After getting the moka pot on the stove, I move to the sink to knock out the dishes I used to make dinner last night. Living with roommates, especially, I don’t like to leave anything lingering in there for too long. It takes no time to hand wash them, and they’re in the drying rack before the coffee’s ready.

8:38am coffees ready.

8:40am cigarettes rolled.

8:42am I slip on the closest pair of shoes I have by the door and step out to the backyard for a cigarette with my coffee. With the cold string of mornings lately, my Bean Boots have become my smoking slippers for the mornings. The coffee is poured into a serving size-appropriate “La Meloise Espresso” mug a dear friend nabbed for me when she was on a cruise in Greece. This semblance of breakfast has (unfortunately) become my morning ritual more often than not lately. A cigarette and coffee to get it going, and then get around to eating whenever I get hungry. I know it’s not the best way to live, but it’s working alright for me now. 

8:52am Back inside to change into work clothes. Whenever I’m driving around for long stretches like today, comfort is key, and I already know I’ll be too hot after a few hours if I keep this chunky sweater and longsleeve on. I throw on a short sleeve t, an old Heavy Slime Eagles hoodie, and a Dickie’s jacket, knowing I’ll probably wear each possible combo of that throughout the day of deliveries. 

8:55am Brush teeth, wrap up things in the bathroom & bedroom, head to the kitchen to pack some snacks.  

9:08am Throw on my Doc’s and walk out the door. On Wednesday's I do deliveries for a local photo lab and have enjoyed every single shift so far. I grew up just outside the city and have been a proper resident for a decade now, so city driving really doesn't phase me. Although I don't usually drive from point A to point B in my day-to-day life, I love driving around the city and discovering new pockets I haven't visited. Plus, working for a smaller local company does give me a better local sense of self and makes it feel like I'm adding to the fabric of the city, despite in a relatively small way. If the customers' feelings of receiving their orders and prints is anything like the excitement and joy I feel when getting the dropbox link to scans of my developed film, then every minor driving hiccup or detour throughout the day is worth it. 

9:12am I'm heading into Center City now — it takes me 3 turns to get to the shop. It’s a straight shot up to Chestnut, drive for a handful of blocks through UCity, over the bridge, and into Rittenhouse, then I’m basically at the shop. I like to listen to WRTI on this portion of the drive to chill out a bit during rush hour and help navigate the inevitable construction work constantly going on in UCity. 

9:25am Made it into the shop. I pick up the deliveries and pick-up’s bin and start plugging in ~20 addresses into an app to optimize the day’s route. This feels like a light shift, as I typically hit between 30 and 40 different stops in a day. I don't think too much of it at the time and figure it'll be a quick day.

9:30am I ask the GM about a matte photo print my dad recently got from Mpix, and if they have anything like that in the shop. I've shot film for quite some time now, but have never had anything printed. I'm glad to hear they do have a similar offering, and take note of it for when I want to get some prints made.

9:37am I'm back in the car texting pickup customers to confirm what time I'll be around to grab their film. 

9:53am Done texting, route is planned out, and I'm ready for the road.

9:57am I pass by The Ground Rittenhouse, and the cafe tables on the sidewalk makes me think about the Open Streets series CCD ran on September Sundays this past year, and how a little sidewalk setup like theirs fits that concept so well. I watched some of the Eagles game on the last Sunday of September there, sitting on a chair in the street by Cleaver’s along with, like, 50 other people. They should bring back that concept in the Spring, if you ask me. 

10:12am I get up to Fairmount for 2 quick deliveries before cutting across Spring Garden to 6th St and down to Washington Square West for a quick drop on my way to South Philly. I'm listening to some UK Garage and House music I've thrown together in a playlist, hoping it'll help me get in a good groove for the day, but nothing's quite landing so far.

10:30am I got a call from mom to catch up and touch base as I park outside the next dropoff. I share with her that I’m feeling a little anxious about some upcoming life changes, and we also chat about the upcoming family plans for Thanksgiving. The call brightens my morning and I keep rolling after dropping off the package. 

10:53am I have a drop-off to make inside an apartment building with no doorstaff and no code provided to get in. A helpful resident leaving the building lets me in and leads me to the mail area, where he enters a code to unlock the building’s mailbox system for me to leave the delivery. Without any staff, this would’ve been a real hassle for me to get inside and deliver the package to the right place. I'm overwhelmed by his kindness and try to hold on to that feeling for as long as I can. 

11:13am I pass by Isgro’s and suddenly want a pignoli. I head to the next drop off spot instead. 

11:19am I’m trying to make my way further down south but 12th Street is closed. There’s been tons of road work in South Philly lately, plus it’s trash day today. I’ve had lots of stop starts so far, and have yet to feel in the groove. 

11:22am I pass the fruit man 10th and Dickenson. It warms my heart to see big trucks with fruit overflowing out of the back in many pockets throughout the city.  

11:31am I pass by the C.M. Neff cook supply store for the first time. The building is strikingly gorgeous from the outside, and makes enough of an impression on me to make a mental note to stop by some time. 

11:42am I'm driving through Graduate Hospital for a delivery and get a call from the shop asking if I have room for a handful of additional stops today, which, thankfully I do. I can plan out the days pretty well at this point, and I would've been ending around 3pm with the original number of deliveries.

12pm Center City drivers are horrendous right now. An Uber driver picks someone up outside Rouge and cuts over from the parked lane to turn left onto Walnut, and quickly comes to a stop since the car in front of him is stopped because of pedestrians crossing Walnut (naturally, at noon on a weekday). This holds me up since he’s still entirely in my lane, and I cannot help but to lay on the horn. There will be weeks and weeks of driving where I won’t even think about using the horn, but this was just ridiculous. 

12:04pm Back at the shop, in and out with about 10 new packages and addresses to add to the route. I’m thankful for the additional stops, because if I’m out driving I’d prefer to hit as many as possible, and my original schedule would have had me ending mid-afternoon.

12:06pm Back in the car and adding new addresses to the route. Hoping this will be a good reset to the day so that I can really feel like I’m rolling. The app optimized the route again and my ending point on west Market Street stays the same, thankfully.

12:19pm I backtrack just slightly to GradHos for one delivery before heading over the Grays Ferry Bridge and up 47th Street into my old neighborhood. Spirits are lifting once I pull off the bridge and onto 47th after not getting in the groove earlier with all the stop-starts in South Philly. I’m glad they put speed humps on this street south of Kingsessing Ave near the school there — that shit really does get driver’s to slow down.

12:35pm After making a delivery in the neighborhood, I stop at Green Line by the park to complete the shift reset. One more stop in UCity before heading to Delco. I get a red eye and smoke a rollie on the 43rd Street-side tables, being mindful where the smoke blows since the cafe’s kitchen window is cracked. From this point on I’ll primarily be outside the city, bouncing down to Ridley before cutting up to Overbrook, Bryn Mawr, Wayne, Glenside, then down into the Northwest portion of the city. 

12:49pm Heading out of the city on Walnut and finishing up my club playlist with Untitled 04 by Leod, a track I'd recently heard while listening to a Four Tet set. I switch off the club mood and over to podcasts, starting with today’s How Long Gone episode. The topics range from Hudson, NY feeling like Brooklyn in the early 2010’s, how Katy Perry must’ve felt at the Sabrina Carpenter concert at the Forum in LA over the weekend, and the possibility of Jelly Roll being on the Coachella lineup. Of these three topics, I only have a passing interest in one of them, but the hosts are funny enough where I don’t mind killing an hour of drive time listening to them theorize about what John Mayer and Katy Perry talked about at the Forum. 

1:15pm I’m driving through Morton or Ridley or wherever and am confident I’ve never been here before.

1:50pm Red eye done, DelCo done, heading up Township Line Road towards Overbrook/Wynnewood for a couple stops on my way to the last leg of the day. I really do enjoy the longer stretches between suburbs, and even with the added stops from my mid-day course readjustment, I’m still expected to be back at the shop by 5pm. 

2:00pm I passed by the Silver Linings Playbook diner and the How Long Gone episode ends with a teaser that Father John Misty will be the guest on Friday’s episode, which I will inevitably listen to. Next podcast that autoplays is one I recently subscribed to, Middlebrow, and within 5 minutes the hosts thank Chris Black (of HLG) for landing them model gigs in an upcoming J. Crew campaign within 5 minutes of the pod, only exemplifying the echo chamber in my mindless driving podcast listening habits. 

2:11pm Heading up Lancaster Ave towards Bryn Mawr College. One of the Middlebrow hosts drops the phrase “kerning game on point,” and I just had to pack it up for the day. No more podcasts on cultural commentary on this drive, I’ve had enough.

(I would go on to finish the podcast later in the week, and subscribing and listening to this specific episode was all worth it in the end. In the final segment of the episode, the hosts discuss their recent trip to The MoMA to see The Clock, a 2010 art installation/film by Christian Marclay that I had never heard of. The film is 24 hours long, and all of the video installation's content comes from movie scenes where either a clock displays the current time, or an actor’s dialogue includes announcing the time. It seems interesting enough that I may make a trip up to see it before it ends on 2/17/25.) 

2:20pm I meet the customer just outside the Campus Center and pick up the rolls of film. I’m welcomed inside to the center and promptly beeline to the bathroom, then to the cafe for a mid-afternoon kick of caffeine. As I'm heading back through the parking lot I realize the sun is starting to set, and it sinks in that the days really are getting shorter. 

2:27pm I'm back in the car and switching off podcasts for the day. I throw on a live set from Philadelphia’s premier Grateful Dead cover band, Friends of Jerry, that I was at earlier this year, 6-6-24 at Spruce Street Harbor Park, and start with the 3rd to last song, China Cat Sunflower. If there’s one thing to know about the Grateful Dead, it is that they would always follow China Cat with I Know You Rider back in the day. If there’s one thing to know about Friends of Jerry, it is that they always subvert your expectations and throw nastier junk than any pitcher in the majors. The band swerves and throws in another live Dead classic in between the typical pairing, Eyes of The World, in this show. The run of China Cat>Eyes>Rider from this SSHP show is the perfect example of the band’s love and respect for the OG Dead, and I’m so thankful for Worm for recording, mastering, and uploading nearly all of the Friends of Jerry’s sets to their Bandcamp page. I’ve witnessed this band tactfully weave in songs from the Dead canon with timeless non-Dead classics such as Pavement’s “Harness Your Hopes,” Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man,” Getz/Gilberto’s “Girl From Ipanema,” Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy,” and even Donna Lewis’ “I Love You Always Forever.” Being able to revisit these *epic moments* of lucid jazz punk Dead in between shows has been a welcomed mooring buoy amidst the raging waters of life. Anyways, that’s that on that. Come find me outside Underground Arts on the sidewalk during setbreak at the next gig if you want to chat. I’ll be the one wearing tie dye. 

2:51pm I make my way out to Glenside for the northernmost stop of the day by taking the Blue Route to the Turnpike to 309. After all the city and congested suburban driving so far, it feels good to touch 70mph on the Blue Route. Growing up just outside the city, I learned how to drive well under pressure on Lincoln and Kelly Drives, and I learned how to drive fast on the Blue Route. I know it’s not a race, but it’s a welcomed change to the shift to kick up the driving speeds.

3:32pm Sat at the light at Stenton and Wyndmoor Aves, getting ready to take Cresham Valley Road to the top of Lincoln Drive and make a few more deliveries on my way down to East Falls/Manayunk. Cresham Valley Road is gorgeous this time of year with so many of the red and burnt orange leaves still hanging on to the trees.

3:54pm I take the Ridge Ave exit off Lincoln and cut across Manayunk by driving down the entire length of Cresson Street. I love how it changes from the most narrow two-way street up by Dawson Street Pub into sidewalk-separated lanes once you get to the cobblestone portion underneath the Regional Rail train tracks. Switch off from the Dead music but continue on the live bootleg kick, opting for a 2015 Parquet Courts show recorded at the Palisades in Brooklyn by NYCtaper. The audio quality is great, the punkier (rather than their later funkier era) side of the band is in full-force, and it gets me in a good mood to finish out the shift. I listen to nearly the whole concert in full, skipping the song about anxiety, 

4:24pm It’s golden hour on 76 heading back into town. The sun is reflecting off of the face of the Comcast Building and casting a nice orange tint over West Fairmount Park. 

4:46pm "More Than A Feeling" by Boston is playing in the shop when I get back with the film pick-ups for the day. At my other job this is a guaranteed song you’ll hear, so it’s an odd workplace crossover, but thankfully I’m in and out and on my way home. Final stats for the shift: 31 stops, 87 miles driven, 2 coffees bought out, and one rollie smoked. 

4:49pm I’m winding down from the shift to a chill-out playlist I’ve been adding to since 2021. It’s about 15 hours long and I always shuffle it. Heading though Rittenhouse right as rush hour is starting is usually irritating, but after driving all day and looking forward to being home, I’m just glad to be driving without consulting the phone for directions and not being on a timetable. The sun is down and the last rays of light are coming from beyond Penn Park as I drive over the Walnut Street Bridge. 

4:59pm I take the local route through the neighborhood since Walnut Street was junked up. 

5:03pm Find a parking spot right out front, seemingly back home before most of the other commuters. 

5:05pm I eat a pear I packed as a snack for the drive but never got around to eating. Have a rollie, continue to listen to the ambient playlist, have a cup of water. Lie down and scroll for a bit to decompress from the day. There was a point in time where I was thinking of seeing Caribou tonight at Union Transfer, but I just don't have it in me to go out to a show. 

6:12pm I start to get it together again.

6:25pm Hop through the shower. 

6:50pm Out to the porch for another rollie.

8:42pm I get a call out of the blue from a high school friend and learn that he'll be back in town over the weekend. I pencil in Saturday night dinner plans, and look forward to seeing him and getting to chat more. The last time I saw him was earlier this month at a large dinner party, and we weren't sitting near each other or otherwise had the chance to have a long conversation. I'm looking forward to dinner — we'll inevitably end up somewhere near Rittenhouse, where his brother lives.

9:41pm I give my partner a call to catch up on our days. We're in a long-distance relationship, so being able to make time for each other by catching up over the phone is always a bright spot in my week. They bring up seeing some odd Facebook posts from Avril 50, a favorite coffee and magazine shop of ours on Sansom Street, and how there must be some code to crack as the posts seem to be cryptic messages. I have no idea what they're talking about when they bring up the posts—I haven't used Facebook outside of marketplace in years and years—so I log on and check out the jumbled posting with messages such as "Girls like us with bust and 212 amazing sorbet arrive to have beans and broccoli with fat boy for midnite snack." The whole feed is incomprehensible at first, but I do some more scrolling and a click out to link for a book of a collection of the shopowner's posts, and find out that all of the posts are written in a Dadaist poetry-style and reflect his current inventory of magazines. My mind is blown, and I'm upset to see that the book is not in stock anywhere online. Seems like the funny esoteric Philadelphia artifact (e.g. Toynbee tiles, etc.) that I would've been aware of, but even this slipped by me whenever it was first published. My partner then goes on to ask if I listened to The Shacks, which, yes, I totally have. The retro throwback sound in the late 2010's mostly coming from the Colemine and Big Crown Record labels did have a hold on me for a brief time. They go on to say they found out the lead singer of Fcukers used to be the lead singer of The Shacks, which completely blows my mind. The two sounds couldn't be farther apart.

10:45pm I'm starting to get tired and roll the world's weakest spliff, clocking in at a nice 90/10 tobacco/weed ratio, which is exactly what I need as a nightcap. I step out to the front porch to smoke while we're still on the phone, and the entire day all catches up to me and tells me to hit the hay soon. 

11:16pm We say goodnight to each other and end the call. 

11:20pm I brush my teeth.

11:30pm Lights out.

Jack is a proud Philadelphian working around the city and living in West Philly. You can find him on the trolley, biking through the city, or on Instagram at @jawnmadden