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smokin in the girls room

Today and tomorrow I am in Cleveland. . . obviously for work, though I plan to see the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame tonight.

This morning, while walking through PHL to my flight, I noticed a sign outside the ladies' bathroom. It said, "no smoking in public areas" except somebody had scratched out the "l" in public. This made my day.

So I didn't make it to the Hall of Fame. By the time I got to my hotel it was 4:30 and it closes at 5:30. It didn't seem like a good use of the $20 admission fee. I am bummed however, because I wanted to ask one of the museum docents, "why Cleveland? how did this museum end up here?"

Which is to say that I am not overly impressed with Cleveland. Downtown feels really dead. Maybe it is the oppressive 90+ heat. Or the fact that I walked out of my hotel and passed a car on fire. When I finally realized how close I was to a flaming fuel tank I booked to the other side of the street.

I walked a fair amount; went to this place called Sushi Rock for dinner. Realized about halfway through that it might not make the most sense to eat raw fish in the Midwest. So I ordered some hot sake to kill any food-poisony bacteria. So far, so good.

Then I wandered down to Tower City Center and bought a teal bag with birds on it at Charlotte Russe. Total impulse buy -- but cute so who cares.

And finally, went to the movies (!) and saw Knocked Up with my BFF Isabel Stevens, I mean Katherine Heigl. It wasn't as funny as I anticipated though I could relate to the whole "poking the baby" sex scene. We had a bit of an imagery issue with Lisher and his supposed "sword". Ask him about it some time. Plus it got me all emotional thinking about my pregnancy. More on that some other time.

Finally, to add to my uncomfortable feeling about Cleveland, I witnessed the following scene on my way back to the hotel:
two dudes walking from down the street toward me. Another guy walks up to them, who I thought was their friend. Friendly banter ensues:
One of the two dudes: "Heeeey! How's it going?"
Lone dude:
One of two dudes: "Sixty cents? Well if I had sixty cents I'd tell you to put it in the fuck you machine."

So I guess lone dude asked the two dudes for money. It felt like something was rapidly unravelling as I watched the whole thing go down, and I got that fight-or-flee feeling. Kind of like walking past a flaming Ford Taurus. I'd like to know exactly what a fuck you machine looks like.

I can't wait to see the babies tomorrow. Philly is shitty for its own reasons but at least its home.

12:39 p.m. 2007-07-09

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