Philadelphia Livin'

Philly Night, originally uploaded by MariGerard.

Hello All!! Long time no bloggy. Sorry about that. I have been wildly busy since arriving in the city of brotherly Love December 1st, but I finally have a moment to breathe. So Philly. Wow, what do you want to know? Is it dirty? Yep. More trash than I ever saw in Chicago. Are people rude? Yeah- a little. East Coast rude for sure, but once they see your face around they become far more friendly. How do I like South Philly? Oh I am so glad you asked! I LOVE SOUTH PHILLY!!

So Ok- South Philly isn’t granola crunchy like Germantown, or Mt.Airy. It isn’t super trendy like South Street or Center City. It isn’t hip to the kids like University City, but it’s totally great for so many other reasons. A) It is a mere 2.2 miles from Center City. That is 10 min on a train, or 40 min walking slowly, or 20 min on a bike. B) Geno’s Cheesesteaks. What more is there to say about that. World Famous and sooooo yummy. C) All the houses are cozy row houses on narrow streets. You get to know your neighbors really well. Little old Italian ladies smoke out on their front porches and scope the young ladies out for their Grandson’s. (It’s kinda adorable really) D) The Sports Complex is like 10 min walking distance from my house. And by Sports complex I mean to say the Baseball Stadium, The Football Stadium, the Basketball Coliseum, The Hockey Arena and an old school Sporting Facility are ALL located in ONE spot in South Philly. Surrounded by food and hotels, it’s kinda a really great idea if you ask me. I am hoping to catch a Hockey Game this year, and possibly baseball in the spring. E) Geno’s Cheesesteaks. Yeah I know I said it already, but they are so good I get to count it twice. F) Oregon Ave. Oregon Ave is the Street I live off of. It has a consistent stream of bakeries, corner groceries, wholesale seafood stores, Barber and Beauty Shops and someplace called Bums BBQ that has an amazing Grilled Pear and Goat Cheese Salad with raspberry vinaigrette that I HIGHLY recommend. G) South Philadelphian’s are funny, and caring and loud in most cases, and have really long nails and really big hair. I love them. I feel very comfortable here. H) Seeing as the majority of the community is South Philly is Italian, I being named Mariangela (a very Italian name if you didn’t know that) am getting along great with the locals. Every Grandma in town wants me to meet her Grandson Vincent.

How’s The Job? OMG! OMG! OMG! I love my job!! LOOOOOOOOVVVVEEE it!
Ticket Philadelphia ROCKS! It offers exactly the challenges I was looking for, none of the IT hassles I had using Provenue Crap- uh I mean- Provenue Max at VGT, and I have a real office environment. I have a cubicle, decked out with my photo Magnets, and I get a real lunch break (1hour and it is recommended that I leave the building to get a true BREAK from the office.) The people I work with are all fun and wonderful. We have a ballet lady whom as her name would suggest is a former dancer. Her cubicle has signed Toe shoes from all sorts of important PA Ballet stars. We have the Orchestra Guru, he is English (go figure) and his Cubicle resembles my uncle’s kitchen with tins of Fortnum and Masons English Breakfast Tea, and London Philharmonic Posters. Our quality assurance manager reminds me of Dwight from The Office. (If Dwight had long hair and a cooler sense of humor) And the whole Patron Services team is really great at what they do and a pleasure to be around daily. I check in at 8:45am and at 5:00pm I check out. No staying late, no Will Calls. It’s brilliant!

Job Perks that I have enjoyed so far: Free ticket to see The Messiah Performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philadelphia Singers Chorale. AMAZING ½ price tickets to see Bela Fleck and The Flecktones. (Such a good show) Free tickets to see Ruben Studdard and Frenchie Davis (Both of American Idol Fame) in Ain’t Misbehaving. (I was gone that weekend so I gave the tickets to my good friend Betty from NC who now lives here and she gushed about how great the show was) And I am hoping to get COMPS for Jesus Christ Superstar at the end of the Month and Rent in Feb Starring Original Cast members Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal. And Spring Awakening (The winner of the 2007 Tony Award for Best Musical) will be here in June…and I am sooooooo getting tickets for that. Plus it was just announced that we are selling tickets for Morrissey in March. Oh yeah! Wooooot!

So yeah- the job and the City Rock! I would love to see any and all of you here anytime. And I promise to Blog more often now that I am fairly settled. And hey- I can honestly say I am enjoying the 30-40 degree temps! I have yet to see a speck of snow, and it hasn’t been lower than 30 yet. (I know all my Chi peeps are struggling through like -12 right now. Hang in there y’all)

More to come! Till then GO EAGLES!!