My life in... Philadelphia?

Now that my stint in Guam is over, my blog has undergone major surgery: a new name. But have no fear. It will be filled with the same commentary, sarcasm, and general observations of all things awesome and sucky about the places I go. Seeing as I'm in Philadelphia now though, it'll really just be observations of things sucky.

First, let's talk about good stuff Philly has to offer: Cheesesteaks.

Whew, now that I've got that out of the way, Philly sucks. It's dirty, cold, and smelly. I have to take the train to get there. Now while to many people, that sounds awesome - short trip, no airport security, rare delays, wifi (ok, that is nice) - but it sucks. It is bumpy. I don't mean like a bump here and there. I mean like airplane turbulence the whole ride. There's also almost never any single seats left, so inevitably you get stuck sitting opposite someone else playing that game of "whoops, we made awkward eye contact because you're sitting directly across from me and I have no where else to look so now I look like I'm staring at you (but don't get any ideas - you're 83 years old and wrinkly)." There's also so little foot room in those seats, that if you shift slightly, you start playing footsies with the person across from you. See my previous statement.

As if that all seems bad enough about the train, this is the worst part: you lose all your airline status. Big deal you might say. Yeah, it is a big deal. For those of you who remember my weekly treks to Los Angeles, you'll remember I never flew coach. I was upgraded to first class EVERY flight. Free. That's a perk of status, at least at the highest level. Lose that status? Goodbye upgrades. Double miles? Arrivederci. Board the plane first? Adios. Skip security lines? Au revoir. If you fly a handful of times a year, it's no big deal, but when you fly every single week (normally), that 15 or so weeks to hit the bare minimum status is hell.

So Philly is so far rating poorly. Let's see if over the next several weeks the cheesesteaks can have it make up some ground.