Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service

Almeda and KT, brave adventurers and humanitarians extraordinaire, journeyed into the deepest, darkest reaches of Philadelphia today to help their less fortunate brethren [and sistren.]

I woke up this morning at approximately 6:45, after sleeping through my alarm. Thankfully I got up when I did because when KT & mater Katieae arrived, I hadn't finished eating my oatmeal. However, they were early, so I suppose it wouldn't have mattered anyway. We arrived at the Glenside train station around 7:40 and went inside to purchase tickets.

However, the ticket guy ["Gus"] wasn't in his little booth, so we just stood there looking stupid. Then a slightly attractive young man whom KT decided reminded her of Elijah Wood [though I must say I didn't note the resemblance] came up and also wished to buy tickets. But Gus was letting us all down.

"How much do the tickets cost?" asked The Boy Who Was Not Elijah Wood. KT & I shrugged, having no idea. A helpful womyn said it was around five dollars. Then The Boy Who Was Not Elijah Wood said he was heading toward Tennessee [that's why KT liked him, I'm sure; she has a weakness for country music] and was running low on funds, which tugged at the heartstring of KT and I, both extremely sympathetic people, especially towards attractive young men. Then the helpful womyn suggested that we needed to call Gus. KT, TBWWNEW, and I exchanged looks. Were we just supposed to yell, "HEY, GUS! WE WANT SOME TICKETS!"? If so, that's not the plan of action we took. TBWWNEW knocked feebly on the counter. It didn't work.

"I think his name is Gus," said KT, which she later regretted, pointing to a sign taped up next to the ticket window. But then, a train pulled into the station, and KT and I bolted, leaving TBWWNEW to deal with the problem of buying a ticket on his own.

We boarded the train [after I cautiously asked the conductor if the train went to 30th Street Station], and off we went. The train was crowded, so I had to sit next to a complete stranger for the first half of the ride, but then just about everyone got off at Market East, so I moved next to KT, and we had practically the entire train to ourselves. We talked about TBWWNEW for a while [KT at this point being entirely enamoured of him], and then I started talking about electrons because I'm just crazy like that.

While I was explaining to KT how electrons are really similar to passengers on a train, I suddenly realised that the train had stopped, and outside the train window was a column that said 30th Street Station. I jumped up and exited the train quickly with KT in tow. We safely made it off the train, but KT was slightly shaken up.

"And that is why trains make me nervous," she said to me.

"Pish," I replied. "If we had missed this stop, we could have just gotten off at the next stop."

"And walked back here?"

"And took a train back here."

We then walked to Au Bon Pain, with me explaining to KT the link between the very building we were in and Viggo Mortensen. At this point it was only about 8:30, and I had told Laura that our train would be getting there at 8:34. [Yeah. Did I mention we got on a train that came like fifteen minutes before the train we had planned to take did?] So I purchased croissants for us [raspberry cheese croissant = god], and we sat and ate them.

After we finished [well, after I finished— KT took a little longer as her croissant was a little bigger], we got up and went out to where we were supposed to meet Jane and Laura. They weren't there, so we circled the train station a few times, feeling slightly like whores. Well, only KT. I just felt cold and a little nervous that I would get kidnapped and/or raped because we were constantly looking around for Laura's car, which might have given a passing rapist the idea that we were lost and completely out of our element. But never fear! We were not raped.

After calling their apartment to see if they had already left, we found Laura's car with her in it. Jane had gone in to look for us. We waited for a while; Laura honked her horn repeatedly. Eventually I went in and found Jane and at last we were on our way.

Finding the place where we were supposed to be was slightly difficult, but because Jane and Laura were so nice and bought us lunch and everything, I won't say anything potentially incriminating or embarrassing here. Let's just say that eventually we got there, and that's what counts. ;)

KT, Jane, and I washed plastic tables and chairs, while Laura painted, and then we all painted. It wasn't too difficult, and we were done really quickly. And of course, we got our lovely oversized t-shirts: make it a day ON, not a day off.

Then we went out for lunch to a local diner [but not so local that it was still in the actual slums], which was nice. For dessert KT and I shared a chocolate creme pie, and we had some fun with straws. Laura gave me a quarter for sucking up the chocolate creme with a straw [See how pathetic I am? I'll do anything for money. Except of course selling my body.], and Jane and Laura had a chocolate creme straw-sucking contest, which was highly entertaining.

Finally KT and I took the train back to Glenside, then trekked to her house in the face of icy, blustery winds. And now we're here, and I'm typing this, and next we're going to study mathematics for the midterms. Huzzah!

Almeda | 20.01.03 15:16 | TrackBack