The Misadventures of Jane, Claudia and Rachel

My friend Rachel really likes weird things. Sometimes I humor her. Today was one of those days.

I can usually be talked into any kind of road trip, simply for the sheer joy of spending hours on a freeway next to people I like talking to. How about a trip to Philly to see the Medical Oddities (Mutter)Museum?! Sure, why not? How about taking the Chinatown bus? Sure, why not? Sounds great! Here's how it all goes down...

Today I got up super early (what IS this, it's a Sunday!) after the WORST night's sleep I've ever had...don't know why, I slept for maybe 2 hours, dozed for the rest. The worst. Anyway, so I caught the subway with Rachel down to Chinatown and that's all fine and dandy until we walk around aimlessly for awhile trying to find the correct Chinatown bus (who knew there were so MANY!?). The West side trains weren't working, so we finally found the correct bus place, but Claudia wasn't there because she was forced to take a cab from the Upper West Side. Doh! We stand around in the heat. My face is goo.

Claudia jumps out of the cab like wonder woman on steroids, right about the time the bus is ready to pull away (but also just after a cop car drives up and writes the bus driver a ticket (?!)). Things are good as we sit down in the slightly used looking, but plush seats. The status of air conditioning is unknown.

When the bus starts to move out from under the Manhattan Bridge, there is a slight breeze coming from the overhead vents, so it seems that all is good. That is until we are halfway there, having a perfectly fine conversation, when Claudia's arm rest falls off. No seriously, it just feel off. Yep, you get what you pay for on the Chinatown bus ($20 round trip to D.C., Boston and Philly). Good stuff. There are several minutes spent trying to reapply the armrest to the seat. It ends in triumph after a few attempts at placing a rouge bolt. We probably should have used gum.

Philly comes not too soon, and we get to fulfill our brunch requirement at a diner in the Reading Terminal Market (which has everything, and is amazing). We join the city on a walk to the museum (heading in what we think is the right direction). Face turns to goo again, but the city looks pretty under the blue sky.
We wind up on an overpass of some kind, walking through a construction site, and pretty much over the street we want to turn down. About 10 blocks past where we want to be, and a few dashed ideas of just rolling down the hill, we come to a busy street next to the train station. We play frogger with the traffic and win, and then slowly wind our way back down to the street we originally wanted.

The Mutter Museum FINALLY comes into full view, we sop up our selves and head on in for quite a treat of skulls, catalogued drawers of things people have swallowed (there was everything from bones, to nails to staple gun sized staples), shrunken heads, conjoined twin skeletons, enlarged colons, books made from human leather, and a plethora of history on all things medically odd. Wow. You must go, it's a wonder!

After the fun of all things dead and strange, we wandered back out into the oven of Philly and found ourselves at an Irish Pub in the "Gayborhood". Not kidding- actually called that. We had a lunch/dinner snack and then walked back towards the market and the bus. We actually managed to catch the 5 o'clock bus, even though our tickets were for 7, so we could beat the rush hour traffic home from the Jersey Shore, but also because I'm the idiot who decided to go on a road trip the day before leaving for a month. I sat in back with Rachel in pretty much the only two empty seats together. This bus's air was truly non-existence, so we actually just sat and baked in the sun for most of the ride home. I was sitting goo.

Since we were kinda hungry once we got back to our own sweltering city, Rachel and I got it in our heads that we should find a Jamba Juice and have a smoothie. The only one we could think of was in Union Square, and we were in Chinatown, but since it didn't SEEM that far, we started off for the subway, but decided to walk. It was hot. Really stinkin' hot. Still. And much further than anticipated. So, let's just say I got a lot of exercise today. The smoothie in Union Square was so worth the wait though.

I de-outsideified once I got home, then packed a few belongings and fell into my bed.