Hood

Just finished reading this novel by Emma Donoghue. (Hood, that is.) It's quite the interesting read, all told from the point of view of Penelope (PenUmbra, PenUltimate, Just Pen), who just lost her lover of 13 years (Claire), who while riding on the back of a cab on her way back from the airport was in a car accident and died. The worst part? Though Claire and Pen lived together (with Claire's dad) they were not out, so she's forced to go through an almost secret widowhood.

The novel is set in Dublin, and I related while reading it for a myriad of reasons. Funnily enough I very quickly put myself in the place of the person that had passed away - Claire was this woman who traveled a lot, asked crazy "what if" questions. But our similarities ended there, and yet, I kinda related to her the most. The Novel follows Pen through a week - from the moment she finds out Claire's dead until exactly a week later when she gathers enough courage to sit in her own mother's kitchen with the intention of coming out. In the meantime, Pen treats us to her memories of Claire, we get to see how they met, how their love was such a coincidence in a way, the back and forth of their relationship, the on and off of those 13 years. Sad as it is, by the end of the novel everyone's with Pen - even I, a Claire person, and I love that Donoghoue doesn't go for the obvious when it comes to Pen "starting a new life without Claire," that she doesn't shy away from uncomfortable conversations with well meaning but misguided people.

I think, though that the main reason why I related to Claire, is because despite all of my "what if-fing," I have no desire to ever entertain the idea of my love dying... I didn't want to be in Pen's shoes, so I put myself as Claire, creating a distance between me and that pain so that I could look at it from afar and call it beautiful and talk about how amazing it is. I hope this is as close to that kind of pain I have to get to. I still recommend the book to others, though, because the pain and the writing ARE beautiful, and I think it makes you look within yourself, and within your relationship if you have one, in an intricate way that you may not have done so before.

Brotherly Love

After a lovely week that involved watching two Harry Potter movies a day, a night Latin dancing at Henrietta's, and a day at Six Flags Great Adventure the girls, Mi Cariño and I got on the road to Philadelphia. Like last year, there were Queer movies to enjoy, and good food to be had.
First stop, a repeat, with Cafe Estelle. This time I had the corn and black bean omelette. I forgot to take a picture of pancakes, but believe me, we had them this time too. They were as good as we remembered.

Afterwards we made our way through Old City in Philadelphia, taking it easy and seeing the Liberty Bell from the outside once more, Christ Church, Old Pubs, and just generally enjoying the very hot day. In the afternoon we saw "Jessie and Jamie are Not Together," which was this hybrid of a romantic comedy with musical numbers thrown in. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Parts of it were really funny, while other parts, not so much. The musical numbers? Unnecessary, all of them. None of the songs were catchy or were saying things that were truly advancing the story (since most feelings expressed through song were said outloud before hand anyway), plus, the actors weren't really good singers anyway. That just takes away from that kind of thing. However, there were tons of nice sex scenes, funny date scenes, and the ever present gratuitous sex between best friends that doesn't really get addressed at the end. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 - much better than the disaster we saw last year, but not quite "Kissing Jessica Stein/Saving Grace."

After we followed Cariño's brother recommendation to find some cheesesteaks. We decided for Pat's.

I had me one with onions, peppers and mushrooms, and cheese. It was extremely tasty, but I didn't go crazy for it. It WAS a far better choice than the steaks we had last year. 

After, the girls dropped us off at the hotel before they set on the road back to New York. Picture of my hotel key, which I thought very clever and cute.

Phila, or at least Old City Phila, is chock full of these informative blue plaques. This one is right outside City Hall, by our hotel, and I enjoyed having the knowledge. I took the picture on my way to the bus stop so that I could go to NY.

Monday morning, after arriving in NY at 9:30, I watered plans and changed clothes to then go to work so that I could travel to... Philadelphia. Don't ask me. My co-workers and I drove down and arrived in the afternoon in time to record an interview and then be sent to a cocktail party at this boat/restaurant.

Very cute. Once work was over, Mi Cariño and I went for dinner to Cuba Libre. Very expensive, appetizers not really needed kinda place. Which we didn't realize until after we had the aforementioned appetizers.

The bread was great, though! Not Cuban bread, but close enough, and toasted, which makes a difference. Plus, it came with an amazing Mango Butter.

I had me a Mango Mojito to relax a bit. Once I took out all the extra mint they put on them things, it was not bad at all.

Main entree: Vaca Frita

con arroz blanco y habichuelas negras.

For dessert, Mi Cariño had a coffee and shot of liquor with soy milk concoction whose name I don't remember. Tasty but I wouldn't have been able to drink that whole cup.

The bill came in a very cute cigars box.

Another blue plaque, this one on the way to the place where we recorded. I find it lovely and hilarious that a branch of the U.S.A. Military Services was born in a bar.

View of Philadelphia from the Suite I was working at. Plenty of Memorials in that part of town.

We returned to NY Wednesday night after having had a great time. I wouldn't mind making this trip an annual thing, it was a lot of fun, and the lovely thing is that Phila still has many other things to go see. (Next year the Rodin Museum, for sure.)