Half Way Done!

Well, can you believe it? I've officially reached the half way point of my time in Philly! I will be on my way home exactly 2 months from tomorrow! There's so much more that I have to see and do, so I know that the rest of my weekends will be jam packed with excitement! To start it off, next Friday I will be heading down to Baltimore to see a Friday night game between the Red Sox and Orioles, followed by a night of partying at Baltimore's inner harbor. We've got a hotel room for the night, so we'll stay there and then get back to Philly in time for the Flyers game Saturday night. Anyways, as for what I've been up to....last week was a hectic week. The Flyers Cup championship was going on, so I had to drive to various rinks in the area to deliver merchandise for the event. The Flyers Cup is a March Madness style tournament for the A, AA and AAA level high schools. Tuesday night New Jersey was in town, and just like any game involving New Jersey, it was boring. The Flyers won 2-1, so everybody was in a great mood. After the game I went to Chickie and Pete's with Katey, Eddie and Josh. We went for one drink, but we were having a great time and one drink turned into four. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were quiet days. Duke lost Thursday night, which was a real bummer, but I should be used to that disappointment by now.

Saturday was a looooong day. I had to be at the two games of the Flyers Cup where I helped set up signage all around the arena and helped organize the trophies. Immediately following the game, I had to get over to the Wachovia Center to get set up for the Senators-Flyers game. The Sens got smoked, I was kind of disappointed, but everyone else here was happy and wanted to party, so it was an entertaining evening afterall. First Rob, Katey and I went to Chickie and Pete's (as always) and met up with Eddie, Marissa and Leslie from the Ice Girls. While we were there, we saw Simon Gagne and Donald Brashear there, they were just getting seated for their dinner. Once we left Chickie's, we went to a dive bar across the street, a little place called The Philadium and we met up with the rest of the Ice Girls there. Everybody else was tired, but i stayed and hung out with the girls until about 1...hey, I was havin fun, I wasn't gonna leave!

Sunday was the Flyer's charity carnival, and I have to be there at 11 30, so getting up relatively early was kinda tough following that night. Our duties were to run the 2 inflatable shootout games. It was a long day and there were tons of people, but it's worth it. Last year the carnival raised just under $1 million, which was the largest 1 day fundraiser for any pro sports team. Follwoing the carnival, all the employees got to go to The Victors Club, which is the VIP restaurant. We got free buffet and open bar! Best night ever! I stood right next to Robert Esche (Flyers goalie) at the bar.

I have an intersting day tomorrow. Last Friday I was asked by the community relations director to attend a team sponsored appearance. March is National Reading month, and Flyers wives have been going around to schools reading books to young kids. Tomorrow Karine Gagne and Manon Desjardins are going to be at the French International School, and because I studied French during high school, they want me to do the introduction speech. I have not studied or really talked in French in years, so I emailed Maryll (my friend in Paris) and asked her if she would edit my work and make any necessary changes or corrections to it. She gladly helped me out and to ensure that I'm saying everything right, she's gonna actually call me tomorrow to make sure it sounds good. Only the problem is she's calling me at 1pm her time, which is 6am here, so I'm gonna need to get some sleep soon! That's all for now. I will keep you all posted on what's going on here later!

Update Time!

Well, it has been quite some time since my last update (maybe not, but it feels like it). The past few days have been very exciting for a number of reasons. First off, as everybody knows, March Madness got underway on Thursday, and even at work, anybody that had a tv in their office had it tuned to basketball. The Wachovia Center here was hosting first and second round games and Thursday was the open practice day. I couldn't believe it, but the arena was half full to watch them practice! When I went up for lunch I got to see the end of Wisconsin's practice and the start of (the mighty!) Monmouth team practice. Lots of good it did them, both those teams got blown out in their opening round games. I was a bit disappointed on Thursday. As I reported earlier I had the chance to volunteer for the Friday night and Sunday games...well, they called me Thursday and said they'd no longer need our services. Friday was a crazy day around the arena...the first game was Arizona-Wisconsin at 12 30, but the fans started showing up at 11 30. Before I went to lunch I did get a chance to hang out on the main concourse and watch the live action going on down on the court. As much fun as it would be to be at the games, I kinda like the tv version better because the commentators add so much to it. I'm sure my opinion would change if i had a chance to see Duke play or if I had Final Four tickets. The other great part of Friday was that it was St Patrick's Day! At around 3 I went with Eddie, my boss and a couple others to McFadden's Pub across the street at Citizens Bank Ballpark. They were giving out free Miller Lites there. Shortly after I noticed many of the Wisconsin fan base crowding in there to drown their sorrows after the Badger's pitiful performace against Arizona. Following McFadden's, I went back to Eddie's place for a bit to relax before we went to meet up with Katey in West Chester. We got to Katey's place at about 8, drank a bit and Marissa and one of her friends met up with us at 8 30. It was 9 30 by the time we started walking towards the bar. We went to a little Irish pub called Ryans, and it was packed! The night was entertaining, as St Patrick's Day should be. We had to get out of there kinda early cause Katey had to work at 8 in the morning, so once again we had to be up and outta her place just after 7 30. Aside from that, I spent my weekend glued to my TV. I love watching March Madness, especially when there were so many upsets! As upset as I am that Kansas busted my bracket for a second straight year, it's nice to cheer for those underdog teams that nobody expects to win. I will be doing more of the same this weekend. Anyways, that's all for now! C ya!

The Weekend

Well, it has been another long/exciting week for me....picking up where I last left off, Wednesday was another game day....unlike last time where I left with 4 minutes left and missed an exciting ending, I left at the end of the second intermission....only to miss the Flyers tying the game with 0.2 seconds left in the game! I heard the place went nuts (obviously) and the Flyers won the game in a shootout. The rest of the weekend was kinda boring until Friday when my sister and brother-in-law came to town for the weekend. We went to Ikea for a while, then we went to eat at the TGI Fridays at the Willow Grove Mall....they were kinda tired from the long drive, so we called it a night early.

Saturday got off to an early start....my sister hooked me up with a free continental breakfast at the Hampton Inn. After breakfast I drove them into Center City....this was my first time into Center City, and all I can say is WOW! my perception of Philly has really changed. On my commute to/from work, all I see is ghetto, so I figured all of Philly was sleazy. When we drove up Broad Street, you can see the original city hall straight ahead, and it still towers above many of the other buildings. Center City is where many of the ritzy houses are, apparently Peter Forsberg lives in a section called Rittenhouse Square right in the downtown area. The drive into Center City was interesting, the buildings are so tall the entire area is in shadows. The first thing we did after finding parking was a nice walk to the Independence Hall Visitors Center. It was a perfect day to be outside, 72 degrees with a nice breeze carrying around the smell of cheese steaks from the street meat carts. The visitors center was really neat, they had a Ben Franklin exhibit and a history of the US in the colonial times. There are so many historical and neat places in this area. Across the street from the visitors center is the Liberty Bell. It's not outside, they build a little building around it full with a timeline of the bell. Getting to see it was a bit of an ordeal, we had to go through metal detectors and everything just to see it. It was kind of funny to see some of the quotes in history regarding the bell, people lived and died for this thing. After the bell, we walked over to Independence Hall. One thing I couldn't believe was how small it really is. I mean I know people were little back in those days, but I never expected such an important building to be so small. An interesting this is the streets all around it have been preserved, so they're very narrow and still in the cobblestone form. I guess I'm still getting used to big city life. As we were approaching the parking attendant, I was ready to pay, and thinking this is downtown Windsor, I figured it shouldn't cost more than $1.50 since we were only gone 2 hours. HA HA HA! Rude awakening....$11 for 2 hours! Can you believe that? If there's one thing that will prevent me from going into Center City, it's that. Although the drive was very pleasant, there's tons of cool shops, restaurants and pubs.

We got to the arena at 12 for a 2:00 game, and my sister and brother-in-law waited upstairs at the Cingular Pavillion while I got to work. It was Fan Appreciation Day, so I was part of the prize patrol. They were giving out amazing prizes, such as 37 " HDTVs, european vacaions, home theater systems, things like that. There was also a promo called "Shirts Off Our Back' in which 26 lucky fans got to win the game worn jerseys which the players autographed. The game was good, except the Flyers lost when Buffalo scored the winner with 4 seconds left in the game. I had fun after the game, I had to bring the jersey winners down to ice level where the players skated over to hand them their jerseys. Even the injured guys participated, so I was right at the zamboni entrance standing right next to Darien Hatcher, Keith Primeau, Michael Handzus and Chris Therien. After the game I went to Chickie and Petes with my sister and brother-in-law and we chilled and ate there. After that I took them to the General Lafayette in lafayette Hill and we drank there. I dropped them off after that and joined up with Eddie, Marissa and katey after that.

Sunday was a crappy day, it poured rain all day.....After free breakfast again (woohoo!) we went grocery shopping and then we went to the mall again, followed by a visit to the steak and hoagie factory. The ret of Sunday was great, I saw Duke win the ACC Championship (yay) and then I did homework.

Monday was nice, easy work day and it was 78 degrees (suckers!) and today I got some cool news, I'm going to be a volunteer at the 1st and 2nd rounds of March Madness on Friday and Sunday. Anyways, this is really long, so I'm gonna end it now. More details on the rest of my week to follow! C ya!

The Weekend

Well, i's update time again! For the first time since I've been down here in Philly, I actually went out both Friday and Saturday night! Friday night I went out to the town of West Chester, which is a good 50-55 minutes away. Katey, my coworker goes to West Chester University, so she invited some of the interns out to her place for the night. The only people from work that ended up going were Eddie and I. We met up at Katey's place and then went to one of her friend's places before we went out to the bars. The place we went to was called Baxters, and it was a typical college bar....very packed, good music and cheap drinks ($2 bottles of Miller Lite). We were there until about 2am and then we went back and crashed at Katey's place. The thing that really sucked was she had to work at 8am, so we were up and out of there at 7 30. I spent the majority of my Saturday sleeping and playing PS2, and then made plans to go over to Eddie's place in South Philly. This time it was just Eddie, me and Marissa, another intern. We watched the Duke-UNC game (boo!)....also had the WORST pizza in my life.....really, how hard is it to make pizza? There was a puddle of grease on top, and the dough was hardly cooked at all, so the slices were limp when you picked it up, and the greasy toppings just slid off.....it was horrible! Anyways, after the basketball game we went to Chickie and Pete's for a while, hung out there and went back and crashed at Eddie's. Sunday was a bit boring, I caught up on sleep again.

Monday was a game night, so we had a long day of work. Funny thing happened when I had to go on the ice for the intermission show....I was the goal judge for the youth hockey shootout, and as I'm skating to the far end of the ice, I almost collided with Mike Richards as he was getting off the ice! I quickyl had to stop, but I kinda wonder what would have happened if I had skated right into him. The game was a great game, it was 2-1 Philly going into the 3rd, so I was able to find seats right inside the blue line, 5 rows from the ice....I stayed until there was 4 minutes left with Philly ahead 4-2.....I wanted to leave early to beat the traffic but when I got outside, there was no traffic...everyone was still inside watching the game cause the Canadiens ended up tying the game and forcing a shootout, which Philly ultimately won. I'm sure the place must have been rockin'.....I'm sure glad I was in my car while all of that was going on.

Exciting thing coming up for me....after a few weeks of talk, Eddie finally told us that he got 4 tickets to the Red Sox-Orioles game in Baltimore on April 7th. It's a Friday game, so after work Katey, Eddie, Marissa and I will take the 75 minute drive to Balt. to see the 7pm game, then we're gonna party at Inner Harbor and find a Days Inn or something for the night. We have a Flyers game to be at for 5 pm on Saturday, so it will be a busy but fun weekend. Anyways, that's all for now....look for another update later this week.

Update

Yes, I do realize it has been almost a full week since my last update. Unlike last time when I was crazy busy, I think it was mostly laziness/lack of anything exciting that kept me from an update. Things have been good though. The weekend started off fun, but nothing exciting happened after Friday. Friday was a really fun day, my supervisor brought us over to Chickie & Pete's at 3 to watch the Finland-Russia hockey game. Later in the night I went back to Chickie & Pete's with Eddie and Marissa (interns). I could not believe how packed the place was at 8 30! The parking lot was absolutely full, but since I go to the U of Windsor, I know how the stalking routine works, so I just followed people to their cars. It didn't take me too long to get a spot. We had fun at the bar, but it was really crowded, so we went back to Eddie's place, played cards and just chilled until just before 2. I wanted to leave before 2 so I could hit the Taco Bell drive thru. Nothing satisfies late night hunger like Taco Bell. Well, we get to the Taco Bell and IT'S CLOSED! What kind of Taco Bell closes before 2am? So we ended up going to the Wendy's next door. Even though Wendy's is always good, when you want Taco Bell, nothing else really does the trick. It was a very long drive home, I didn't get back until 3.

Saturday and Sunday were just lazy days for me, I didn't really do anything. I went to the mall ,that was about it. Monday was another really long day. I started at noon, then I had an on-ice clinic in Wilmington to do. The drive home was probably the worst....the traffic was good, but from my place, it's a good 75 minute drive to Wilmington. Tuesday we had two school assemblies to do, the first was early in the morning, the second was in the afternoon, but it was all the way up near Allentown, so we had a little bit of a drive to get there. Tuesday didn't start out too well, I got lost on my way to the first school. Mapquest does a good job for the most part, but it doesn't always get things correct. The other problem was I was heading east at 8 30am, and the glare from the sun was blinding and I couldn't see any road signs for where I needed to turn. I ended up on Villanova's campus, and I was impressed, it's in a really nice setting. I might head back there to check it out.....maybe on April Fool's Day I'll go there with my Duke stuff on =D! Anyways, I called my boss and it turns out I was only 5 mins from where I needed to be, so he helped me out. I had a good time before the second assembly. Bob Kelly, the guy who runs these things treated us to lunch at TGI Fridays. Not only is that my favourite place to eat, but it was also free....it was a win/win situation!.

Last night was a fun night. I had 4 free tickets from my supervisor to the Phantoms game. I went with Matt Greenberg and I invited marissa and Josh (interns) but Josh totally forgot, so it was just me, Matt and Marissa. The place was virtually empty! Honestly, who goes to an AHL game on a Wedneday night? We watched the first period from our seats 25 rows up, but at intermission we went to the Cingualr Pavillion, got some beers and watched 3 of the many plasma flatscreens they have hanging around. It was great, the Tvs featured the Flyers/Devils game, the Phantoms game and the Duke game. It was the best of 3 worlds, who would want to be anywhere else? I got the tickets for free, so I didn't care whether we watched the game live or not. By the time we finished out drinks we went back to the game with only 10 mins left in the second....we took seats right in the corner, 3 rows from the ice. We went back to the Pavillion for the 2nd intermission and didn't even bother to go back to the game, we just hung out and drank. Then they call out "last call" at 9 30? 9 30? I think my grandparents stay out later than that!! Really, have you ever heard of a bar calling out last call at 9 30? Even though Matt, Marissa and I were the oldest people in there that didn't have kids, people can stay out until 10. needless to say we didn't wanna go home, so I took my first drive into Center City and went to a pub in an area called Northern Liberties. We hung out there for another 2 hours. I like the people I hang out with, I'm glad that I have a good group of people to be with. Today the Flyers played and they were getting smoked by the Rangers. I left after the second intermission when it was 5-1 NY. Ever since I got here, they Flyers have just played so many dismal games. The fans here are really getting frustrated. I'm not sure what's going on tomorrow. I might head down to South Street with Greenberg tomorrow or Saturday (or maybe both nights) or the other interns might go out to West Chester and party there. Either way, the weekend should be fun.

Anyways, I'm gonna wrap this up soon. Before I go though, two birthday shout outs this week go to Jackie and Danielle! I'm sad that I'm gonna miss out on Danielle's bday, the Papa Cheneys/2am drunken visits to Golden Griddle bday tradition ranks right up there with the May 24 tradiition. I usually look forward to that night! Hope you all have great bdays, I wish I could be there! Anyways, I'm out....I've got an early day tomorrow, starting it off in New jersey (yes, I feel dirty just thinking of having to go into Jersey. Anyways, c ya!