Wild Weekend

Friday at work was the day we got to celebrate my birthday along with three other Raben Group workers, one of which was another intern, who had birthdays in the first half of October. The cake we had was filled with caramel, chocolate, and fudge which made three spoonfuls enough to make me feel full, but I pushed forward and ate an entire slice of cake that kept me full for several hours.  Work was fairly simple. I kept updating the contact list for MALDEF, a client of The Raben Group's and began another small assignment that required me to look at previous paper draft's and type in updates that indicate which Congressmen and Senators should be replaced, due to their not seeking re-election in 2010. Or whether they lost re-election in 2008. Even though they are not the most exciting tasks, my familiarity with Microsoft Excel and use of congressional research skills have improved significantly since late September.

On Saturday I woke up at 5:30 AM headed for Philly with 49 other people at approximately 7:20 AM. We passed Baltimore and caught a glimpse of Camden Yards, stopped for food in northern Maryland, passed Wilmington and finally arrived in Philadelphia at around 10:30. Everyone who had heard that was going to the NLCS was surprised and were fairly jealous that I was able to get a ticket. Some of them thought I was nuts to wear my Giants shirt as we walked though the city but surprisingly I had only a small number of people even comment about my Giants shirt before game time.

My time in the city started off with a tour through old-Philadelphia and included stops at Betsy Ross's House, the location of Ben Franklin's old house (it was demolished in the early 19th Century), Christ Church, a Quaker Church, the location of the 2nd National Bank of the US. Once we finished the tour I went to go see the Liberty Bell which was a bit smaller than I expected but still an awesome thing to see. However, I could not stay to long because of my scheduled tour of Independence Hall was nearing and I had to get though security before I could enter the building. One big letdown was the the main steeple of the building was covered in construction equipment as it was undergoing renovation, meaning the picture I took of Independence Hall are not as good as they would have been if renovations had not been going on. Nonetheless the tour of Independence Hall was relatively quick but ultimately satisfying. After leaving Independence Hall I went to look for the best cheese steaks with a few other UC people and ended going to Geno's on 9th Street. The restaurant's cheese steak was delicious and I don't think it could have been made any better, so I recommend Geno's for anyone who ever visits Philadelphia.

After Geno's I went my own way and hailed a taxi that took me to the "Rocky steps" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. After taking some pictures of the Rocky statue of set my Ipod to the Rocky theme song and sprinted my way up the steps all the way to the top and got harrassed by some drunk guy for wearing my Giants shirt. Once I finished my time with the steps I was off to the NLCS. Once the game started I got into a friendly discussion with the people I sat next to for most of the game and talked about baseball strategy and about how I ended up buying a seat at Game 1. The only real contentious moment was after Cody Ross's 2nd home run when two separate fans told me to sit down, which simply went on and cheered Ross I he rounded the plate. Once that game reached the 9th inning I was ready to run out of the stadium as soon as the last pitch was thrown. Myself and about a hundred other Phillies fans sprinted out of the stadium as the game was over and i was lucky enough to get a cab and get out of the ballpark without taking the brunt of a drunk and pissed of Phillies fan.

I ended up arriving to DC at 2:20 AM on Amtrak and got back to my room at around 3AM. Not bad for a day's worth of adventures. Below are some pictures of my day in Philadelphia.