"We Went Down This Sleezy Street"

Anything outside my little comfort bubble growing up got a dramatic negative label.  Plastic surgery is GROSS.  Sex before marriage is IMMORAL.  Ross Perot is PARANOID.  Britney Spears is a SLUT.  Usually I just needed to hear an adult say it once (like the Ross Perot thing) and I'd parrot it until somebody challenged me.  This prevented me from having to think and form opinions for myself.

So it's with a cringe that I present the next few entries, detailing my first visit to Philadelphia.  I was predictably prissy and sheltered about the whole experience, complaining about how "creepy" and "unsafe" it was, and then how I didn't like some restaurant because "there chicken was like rubber and the atmosphere was weird."  

Sometimes I really dislike the little person I was.

   
But this isn't even the worst of it.  Stay tuned for next time, when you'll hear my thoughts on the Gay Pride Parade in NYC...