The day BEFORE the birthday

Geo promised he would take me out for my birthday on Saturday. And he did! Yay me!

It was such a good day.

Well, we did argue once, but it was a minute (pronounced either way) argument. I think it was one of those "you're not wearing that?", "stop nagging", "you're a jerk", "you're a nag", blah blah blah. You get the point.

WIth the obligatory once a week arguement over, we got ready and left.

We dropped the Princess off at Mom and Dad's. She was staying the night, but she didn't know that. When I picked her up the next day (my birthday), my mom looked rather haggered. It seems the Princess didn't sleep a wink. How nice. Hey, they want to watch her, so they get no sympathy for the repercussions which occur.

Now, back to Saturday night. First stop was din-din.

We went to TGIFriday's for dinner. I know, TGI's is not the place one would think of when one's other half is treating them to a birthday dinner. I honestly couldn't think of anywhere else to go to eat. I wanted a place where I knew the food was good but not expensive. TGI's won.

It was a nice meal. I had two uber fruity drinks (so not my style). We both got shrimp dinners which was good, but not like the stuff we get down in Maryland. Of course, there were children everywhere which made me miss the rugrat. And there were the occasional twenty-somethings who painfully reminded me I was no longer twenty-something (and slowly creeping out of the thirty-something crowd). It was the typical Friday's atmosphere.

And did I say not expensive? Never order two uber fruity drinks and expect a low bar tab.

Next year, I'm choosing either the Piper Tavern or the Chart House.

After dinner, we went to this area near here known as Main Street of Manayunk. I've always wanted to go there because I've heard nothing but awesome reviews of the shops and the dining. My first choice was South Street, but our neighbor suggested we hit Manayunk instead.

Boy, Geo and I were far from impressed. Everything seemed closed up and not all of the restaurants were open. It just didn't seem like it was "all that". We stayed for all of forty-five minutes and left.

And we had to pay $8.00 in parking. What a rip-off!

I mentioned the disappointment in Main Street to my co-worker on Monday.

"It just seemed so dead. I was so unimpressed."

"You do remember," she said, "that Main Street was one of the places that was flooded out a few weeks ago? Most of those shops are probably still cleaning up from the waters. They say Main Street won't be fully recovered for a few more weeks."

We had some wicked rains a few weeks ago that caused massive flooding in tons of places here in Pennsylvania. Most of Philly county was spared, but lots of surrounding areas were evacuated. Manayunk was one of them.

Okay, so they had an excuse. Geo and I made a promise to each other to check it out again in a few weeks.

Feeling disappointed, we went to South Street anyway.

You didn't flooding in that area to know it was a dump. Then again, flooding could help it.

South Street used to be a happening place from way back when until about the 1990's. It had the funky shops, the retro clothing stores, the great eateries, antiques, etc. I have spent many a coin down there. Then it quickly turned around and went to poop.

It seems all the happening people have migrated from South Street to Main Street. Main Street might become my new hang out (when I actually find a sitter and leave my house to hang out).

Back to South Street, we had a couple of drinks in some seedy little bar. And that was that.

So ends my day before tale. I know it was a ripping read (not). What, you expected more? So did I. That goes to show, next year, I'll have an menifesto printed up before we leave.

Go to the new place to find out where we are going on holiday this year:

She's gonna get the pony, I know it

Tags: philadelphia, manayunk, main street, south street, tgi friday's, floods