Nearing the ten-year mark as a Philadelphia resident: a reflection

If you count college, I've now lived in Pennsylvania for roughly half of my life. My God, I almost forgot about how I put the electricity for my fresh Philadelphia studio in the wrong apartment because I didn't know that I was 2R (rear) and not 2F (front). I assumed 2F just meant second floor, which is where I was. I sat in sadness in a dark apartment as the sun went down before deciding to call PECO and get it sorted out. How embarrassing.

I said several times that I'd leave Wissahickon and move to a more Center-City area apartment. Instead I just moved to different parts of Wissahickon. I love it here. I am jealous of people who live in Center City during large snowstorms because the city must look amazing, quiet, and peaceful throughout. But I have the woods here.

I said I'd never ride a bike in a city. I ride my bike to work frequently now, sometimes even in the streets, sometimes even going with car traffic. 

I've weaved in and out of some friend groups, eventually creating a mish-mash of a group comprising high school friends, college friends, coworkers, and friends of friends.

I've eaten a Chubby's cheesesteak and I've seen a lot of restaurants come and go. I've lost some favorite restaurants including 5-Star Pizza, the first place I ordered delivery from. I loved their veggie grinders and Caesar salad. The veggie grinder is what I ate as I sat on my suitcase in my not fully unpacked apartment in the dark, not understanding why the electricity wasn't working. Possibly the hardest loss was Destination Dogs on Chestnut Street: a place where I could get all kinds of vegetarian hot dogs with different toppings based on various places. I think there is another location in New Jersey but I will never go there unless by chance. East End was a sad one too; the dive bar in Manayunk where Shane and I received free Jell-O shots from a mulleted bartender. Now the place is a gentrification-core style pub that serves brunch.

I developed a love for cooking after realizing that I couldn't live off processed foods from the nearby Commissary Mart (semi-lovingly called the Misery Mart) during COVID lockdowns.

I've accidentally repeatedly bought the same Christmas presents for people from the same shops on Main Street. I've walked and run countless times up that towpath and more recently rode my bike all the way up to Conshohocken. I stepped in a hole in a sidewalk and badly sprained my ankle on Cresson Street and have not walked down that street the same since. The hole has since been filled.

I was run over by a car while walking in a crosswalk to my bus stop that I must have walked to thousands of times by that point. After cursing repeatedly, gathering my things that had exploded from my purse into the street, brushing myself off, and sitting on the sidewalk surrounded by strangers who apparently witnessed the incident, I thought I should text my boss to tell him I'd be late for work that day. Thankfully I was convinced to go to a hospital instead. It was the Friday before Fourth of July weekend and I was bummed about missing a carnival near the Art Museum that I'd been planning to go to with a friend after work.

I have worked in some WEIRD buildings. The current building I work in may or may not have an "acid trap" in the basement, and definitely has flesh-eating beetles in the basement (on purpose). The building I worked in before this one definitely had a cave-like room in the basement filled with liquor bottles (some still containing liquid) from who knows how many years ago. This basement also had showers and was the scariest basement I've ever been in. Supposedly the whole building was haunted by a dead previous disgruntled employee named Albert. The building I currently work in is packed to the gills with taxidermied animals and dead animals in jars of ethanol. I worked for a while in a trailer, where I was told I'd be for maybe two years that turned into five. We finally moved to a new office building only for COVID to hit less than a month later, forcing us into remote work.