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Another day in Philly...
Whee! My brother is sitting next to me playing old games on our Apple //e, my dad is sitting at the table eating the leftover pizza my brother and I brought home and watching TV, and I'm on the Mac on my old desk writing journal stuff. It's like a family reunion of sorts.
Today my dad went in for his eye surgery. It basically was just having his cataracts worked on... they did his left eye today. My brother woke up early and took him to the hospital (the Wills Eye Hospital is at 9th and Walnut and we live at 9th and Chestnut... it's great living in downtown Philly for some things), and I woke up around noon and hung out here for a bit, watching European Vacation on TV, and then the hospital called around 1:30 to say Dad was ready to go home... so Danny and I walked over and wandered through the hospital and found Dad in the post-op thing, and he had an eye patch and was trying to sign papers but he kept missing the lines and scribbling stuff. We got Dad's prescription for weird eye drops filled in the lobby pharmacy and walked home.
It turned out that we didn't actually have to stay here the whole day, as long as we were contactable - and Dad was going to just take a long nap because he had a big headache - so Danny and I decided to drive up to Northeast Philly and visit my grandparents and stuff. My dad gave me the keys to his car and the deed and insurance and all that sort of stuff and I got to drive! I got onto 95 from Vine Street, and drove up to the Cottman exit, and went up to Bustleton and drove all the way up to Rennard street to go to the Philmont Shopping Center. I drove past my high school. It was sort of scary. There are all these fences and stuff... my dad says that it's become really bad there now, with gang fights and other crap going on all the time. (When I went there it was bad enough that they had metal detectors and we had to wear our student IDs around our necks, but he says it's much worse now) Sigh. A lot of stuff has changed on Bustleton... the arcade at the Roosevelt Mall that Laura and I used to hang out with is now a Jim's Steaks, and the Red Lion Diner is now an Eckerd, and things like that. The shopping center has totally changed - but Angelo's is still there. Angelo's is this pizza place that I really LOVED as a kid. They have amazingly good New York style pizza. They've been there since 1976 and are fortunately still there. The shopping center is literally a block from our old house, and I used to always walk over there for a slice of pizza after school and such. Well, this time I drove there... and we went in and got pepperoni pizza and cheese fries. Damn but they were good. It was cool to order a Pepsi and have them go "here's your soda" rather than "here's your pop". We finished a little more than half of the food and brought home three slices of pizza.
After that I drove to my grandparents' place. First we drove past our old house though. It was really weird to see it, since I hadn't been past it in about 2-3 years at least. I got really memory-jolted by it. I dunno. We went to the assisted living place my grandparents live at and visited them. My grandmother is in a scary state of non-health these days. She's barely able to get out of her chair, and she looks to be in a lot of pain. I felt really bad for her, but even worse for my grandpa. He is actually in really good health, but I can tell that taking care of my grandmother is taking a LOT out of him. My brother and I talked to my grandparents for an hour or two - they asked a lot about what we are doing, and our friends and about my mom and her family and all (these are my dad's parents; my mom's parents are dead, and my parents are divorced). We looked at old photos and my grandparents were all impressed at how well I remember who everyone in my family is. (I think it made my grandmother glad because previously she was in charge of remembering who the heck everyone in our family is) My grandpa packed up a huge care package for my dad with lots of random food that apparently they get as part of the package of living at the assisted living house, but they don't like a lot of the food, so they give it to my dad, and then if he doesn't like it he throws it out, and somehow I guess this is a better thing than them just throwing it out or giving it back. I dunno. My grandparents are really proud that I'm driving now. They are unhappy about the idea that I probably won't get married within the next few months and almost definitely won't get married in Philly (my grandfather doesn't think my grandmother has much time left, and she can't really travel anywhere at all), but you know, that's not really something I'm going to worry about. Also, they showed that they have a box that they save all of the postcards and stuff I send them... and they were saying how glad they were to hear about all the places I go to and that I always think of them and send cards, so I feel pretty good about that.
Sorry for the boringness of this, which is why I LJ-cut it... it's mostly for me to try to remember later how I felt when I visited my grandparents today.
Anyway, around 5:30 or 6 we left their place and I drove home. I ran into some bizarre traffic and had to figure out ways to turn onto streets around Bustleton and Cottman, but I figured it out eventually by just going through the Roosevelt Mall lot. It was really weird, I was driving really aggressively, sort of to respond to the way everyone around me was driving. Eli would be surprised, but my brother can vouch for it... I was shifting lanes a lot and dashing past people and doing all of this other stuff I almost never do in Pittsburgh. You almost have to do it in Philly because people expect you to do it and if you stop, they won't, so... anyway, the only things my brother really spoke about driving was to tell me which lanes to be in and things like that - he didn't comment on my driving at all - and later he was really surprised to hear that I hadn't actually taken any real driving lessons at all. So I guess that's good.
Now we are sitting here... hmm, and Enterprise is on now but I don't think I feel like watching it. I wonder what I should do instead. Maybe walk down to South Street or something... I dunno.
Today my dad went in for his eye surgery. It basically was just having his cataracts worked on... they did his left eye today. My brother woke up early and took him to the hospital (the Wills Eye Hospital is at 9th and Walnut and we live at 9th and Chestnut... it's great living in downtown Philly for some things), and I woke up around noon and hung out here for a bit, watching European Vacation on TV, and then the hospital called around 1:30 to say Dad was ready to go home... so Danny and I walked over and wandered through the hospital and found Dad in the post-op thing, and he had an eye patch and was trying to sign papers but he kept missing the lines and scribbling stuff. We got Dad's prescription for weird eye drops filled in the lobby pharmacy and walked home.
It turned out that we didn't actually have to stay here the whole day, as long as we were contactable - and Dad was going to just take a long nap because he had a big headache - so Danny and I decided to drive up to Northeast Philly and visit my grandparents and stuff. My dad gave me the keys to his car and the deed and insurance and all that sort of stuff and I got to drive! I got onto 95 from Vine Street, and drove up to the Cottman exit, and went up to Bustleton and drove all the way up to Rennard street to go to the Philmont Shopping Center. I drove past my high school. It was sort of scary. There are all these fences and stuff... my dad says that it's become really bad there now, with gang fights and other crap going on all the time. (When I went there it was bad enough that they had metal detectors and we had to wear our student IDs around our necks, but he says it's much worse now) Sigh. A lot of stuff has changed on Bustleton... the arcade at the Roosevelt Mall that Laura and I used to hang out with is now a Jim's Steaks, and the Red Lion Diner is now an Eckerd, and things like that. The shopping center has totally changed - but Angelo's is still there. Angelo's is this pizza place that I really LOVED as a kid. They have amazingly good New York style pizza. They've been there since 1976 and are fortunately still there. The shopping center is literally a block from our old house, and I used to always walk over there for a slice of pizza after school and such. Well, this time I drove there... and we went in and got pepperoni pizza and cheese fries. Damn but they were good. It was cool to order a Pepsi and have them go "here's your soda" rather than "here's your pop". We finished a little more than half of the food and brought home three slices of pizza.
After that I drove to my grandparents' place. First we drove past our old house though. It was really weird to see it, since I hadn't been past it in about 2-3 years at least. I got really memory-jolted by it. I dunno. We went to the assisted living place my grandparents live at and visited them. My grandmother is in a scary state of non-health these days. She's barely able to get out of her chair, and she looks to be in a lot of pain. I felt really bad for her, but even worse for my grandpa. He is actually in really good health, but I can tell that taking care of my grandmother is taking a LOT out of him. My brother and I talked to my grandparents for an hour or two - they asked a lot about what we are doing, and our friends and about my mom and her family and all (these are my dad's parents; my mom's parents are dead, and my parents are divorced). We looked at old photos and my grandparents were all impressed at how well I remember who everyone in my family is. (I think it made my grandmother glad because previously she was in charge of remembering who the heck everyone in our family is) My grandpa packed up a huge care package for my dad with lots of random food that apparently they get as part of the package of living at the assisted living house, but they don't like a lot of the food, so they give it to my dad, and then if he doesn't like it he throws it out, and somehow I guess this is a better thing than them just throwing it out or giving it back. I dunno. My grandparents are really proud that I'm driving now. They are unhappy about the idea that I probably won't get married within the next few months and almost definitely won't get married in Philly (my grandfather doesn't think my grandmother has much time left, and she can't really travel anywhere at all), but you know, that's not really something I'm going to worry about. Also, they showed that they have a box that they save all of the postcards and stuff I send them... and they were saying how glad they were to hear about all the places I go to and that I always think of them and send cards, so I feel pretty good about that.
Sorry for the boringness of this, which is why I LJ-cut it... it's mostly for me to try to remember later how I felt when I visited my grandparents today.
Anyway, around 5:30 or 6 we left their place and I drove home. I ran into some bizarre traffic and had to figure out ways to turn onto streets around Bustleton and Cottman, but I figured it out eventually by just going through the Roosevelt Mall lot. It was really weird, I was driving really aggressively, sort of to respond to the way everyone around me was driving. Eli would be surprised, but my brother can vouch for it... I was shifting lanes a lot and dashing past people and doing all of this other stuff I almost never do in Pittsburgh. You almost have to do it in Philly because people expect you to do it and if you stop, they won't, so... anyway, the only things my brother really spoke about driving was to tell me which lanes to be in and things like that - he didn't comment on my driving at all - and later he was really surprised to hear that I hadn't actually taken any real driving lessons at all. So I guess that's good.
Now we are sitting here... hmm, and Enterprise is on now but I don't think I feel like watching it. I wonder what I should do instead. Maybe walk down to South Street or something... I dunno.