Philamore

Wha-ha-ha, I return to drink your blood, um, I mean, to regale you with fine tales of mirth and misery (as the case may be.) Today's tale is really neither, so I suppose I have lied once again. I've been silent for the past few days because I have been in Philadelphia for a training and (gasp) I have had no internet access. So today's topic is yet another wide-eyed observation on how quickly technology is changing. Before leaving for my trip, I received my first birthday present: a GPS. Now, I am not certain how I ever lived without one of these gadgets. Totally gone was all my normal away-from-home stress. Need gas, but don't know which way to turn? Type "fuel" into the "where to?" line, and you're off. I loaded addresses of my uncle, my friends, and the train station, and was instantly directed to my destination each time. I was lucky enough to meet a friend in the city for lunch, but had I been unlucky, I could have typed "food" and received walking instructions in the middle of the city. So cool!

This leads me to a second brilliant and astute observation: all cities in this country are the same. I passed about 20 eateries in Philadelphia which are located in my own B-more Backyard: PF Changs, Sullivan's Steakhouse, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, ESPN Zone, Hard Rock Cafe, Ruth Chris, etc, etc. My uncle told a story of an awesome Brazilian restaurant he went to, and I found out it was Fogo de Chao - which we have in Baltimore. It's crazy. One of the other girls in the seminar mentioned great drink specials at a bar called Tir Na Nog down the street...and 100 miles away on Baltimore's harbor. I thought many of these were unique, yet I continue to discover new locations in every city. Perhaps the mom-and-pop diners went out with the shops.