Jeremy's visit

Two weeks ago, my darling baby boo-boo, my 17 year old brother Jeremy, came out to visit over his spring break. I was determined to show him a good time, to expose him to the gritty side of urban life, to expand his horizons...at least, that was the plan when it was initially decided that he'd come to visit a month or so prior. By the time he arrived, however, I was in full freak-out mode at school and in no position to play hostess. Lucky for me, Jeremy is one of the most undemanding, low maintenance people in the world, always has been, and was not put off by the prospect of entertaining himself for most of the week while I was in school or at the library.

Given that he was such a trooper about his mostly solo vacation, I wanted to fulfill the few requests he did have:

1. Visit Scranton, PA, the location of his beloved show The Office; and
2. Visit White Castle, of Harold and Kumar fame and which is referenced repeatedly by the Beastie Boys.

I decided that it was imperative he also see NYC, if only under the guise of visiting White Castle. Sadly, that was one failing of the trip...not a single White Castle in Manhattan, something that once we arrived in the city I realized I should have checked ahead of time. Dammit.


But we did drive to Scranton, which by the way is a drive straight north into PA's mountains, the Poconos (large hills by Northwest standards...sorry, guys). Despite expectations, it turned out to be a rather nice little city, cute really, with a lovely park that randomly enough boasts a wheelchair-accessible tree house. We drove around to get Jeremy his fill of Office-related site seeing, and before getting back on the road we stopped for dinner at Chick's Diner. Lord, how I love old diners. This one was perfect -- silver, goofy menu items such as Texas Wiener (hrmm) and crusty old staff. Loved it.

Then it was back on the road. I was extremely tired and not up for making the two hour drive back to Philly, so I informed Jeremy that he would be sharing driving duties with me. What's that? Don't know how to drive a stick shift? Only have a Washington state learner's permit? No matter! Through some heavy peer-pressuring I persuaded him to practice starting and shifting in a parking lot, assuring him that 1st gear is the only problem, and I only needed him to cruise along on the highway in 5th gear. Once on the freeway, he did a fine job, and we had a nice conversation...until I realized that, hrmm, didn't we have to grab some toll road tickets on the way to Scranton? Yet we hadn't had to stop for any yet....Oh. That's because we had missed an exit, and instead simply followed the signs south, driving an extra two hours to Harrisburg, the state capitol. Marvelous.

So we drove, and drove, until my eyeballs were about to fall out and I was hallucinating things that weren't really there, as one tends to do after too long on the road, but finally we made it to Philly at about 1am. Blehhhh.

All in all, it was great catching up with him, and we had some nice evenings at home where we cooked dinner together and watched the Daily Show and Colbert Report, and he impressed me (and himself) by mastering Philly in the course of his week here. He was an expert navigator of the streets and subway/trolley system by the time he left, got a taste of the hood (including the Fresh Prince's West Philly...ah, so that's why mom sent him off to Bel Air...see photo below) and is now a much more savvy traveler. And I'm sure he got major coolness points with his friends back home. I mean hey, he's seen Scranton!