1115.org

Ah, the holidays. There’s nothing like them for good blogging fodder, as Matt proved with his Thanksgiving celebration of all that is Pittsburgh. My turn now—my Powerbook is broadcasting from deep within the Philadelphia suburbs. And I’m trying to keep warm. After five years of the California life, I have officially turned into a weather wimp, which is very disheartening.

Some random excursions from the last few days:

Best quote of the trip, so far:

“You don’t have to worry aboout getting Tisha a Christmas present this year”. This is how my dad told me (over the phone, no less) that he got divorced from his wife…A MONTH AGO. Hey, thanks for the update, dad! Call me crazy, but this information probably could have been related in a more timely fashion, especially since I talk to him every week, at least.

I really don’t have much to say about my ex-stepmother—my dad married her while I was in college, so I never had much opportunity to interact with her. That said, this isn’t exactly unexpected from what I DO know. Crazy…

Thursday Night Party & Bullsh*t

Now this is what I call a homecoming: 13th row seats to a Flyers game, followed by a dj engagement at one of the country’s best drum & bass clubs, Platinum. First, the game: somehow, Chris Kaos managed to hook up fantastic seats for the Philly/Tampa Bay game…we were close enough to see the players’ faces and feel the chill of the ice, as well as get some requisite ice-level photos. Too bad the Flyers lost (5-4 in OT), though the game was probably one of the most exciting I’ve seen.

Chris Kaos braved frostbite for this photo. A true American hero.

After a late dinner, we made our way to Platinum. Surprisingly, the DSL was behind the decks when I walked in—it’s not often that you catch a dj of his caliber spinning the early set. After saying hello to too many people and getting the latest Philly gossip, I took my place behind the decks at 1am. If my camera didn’t have the nasty habit of going through batteries like the proverbial drunken sailor, I would have a more complete record of the night. But I did get these, at least:

(left) Chris Kaos & JG, not crunk at all…. (right) J.Smooth at work, 12:40am

For those about to rock…the Platinum crew! Left to Right: Jason (Method One), Damian (Dieselboy), Anthony (Expanse), Chris (Kaos)

I Love USAir. Morons.

Whenever I fly cross-country, I usually take USAir because they are one of the few carriers who offer nonstop flights between San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Consequentially, all of my frequent flyer miles are on USAir, so it makes sense to continue using them. Based on my experiences this time around, that policy is now under review. The first black mark came on December 16, when I called the airline to confirm my flight for the next morning.

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have a record of you on this flight” said the voice over the telephone.

Say what? I was looking right at the printout confirmation of my ticket order, complete with tracking number. I had purchased the ticket online back in November.

The voice told me that my payment had somehow been refused or cancelled, though 1) No one called to tell me this, and 2) my bank account had more than enough money to cover the ticket, so lack of funds wasn’t the problem. This could have been bad, cancel-the-whole-vacation bad, but the voice was able to get me on an alternate flight. Whew.

Of course, what I had to deal with in baggage claim was another thing entirely. Since I had several dj jobs on the East Coast, I checked in a record box full of new and classic tunes to play. In the pre-9/11 days, I could lock up the box and have some sense of security for my tunes. Those days, for obvious reasons, are gone. So I was treated to the following sight at baggage claim: my open record box coming up the belt, with it’s contents spewed out into the open. After treating the entire bagage claim with an expletive loud enough to be heard in the parking garage, I had no choice but to save my records…so the other travelers were treated to the sight of me standing on top of the baggage claim as it circled around, stuffing records back in the box as fast as I could. It took about one-and-a-half laps, in case you are wondering. Thanks, USAir!

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More to come…especially after the holiday, when I will be breaking in the new Canon S50 digicam. Until then…happy “non-denominational gift giving day”, which is a Christ-free way of celebrating the season if you’re a Jew whose mom really likes the idea of having a tree. Not that I would know anything about that.