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November 8, 1998

How many do you have?

Off to Philly for my first r.a.b. munch! FYI, "munch" is the term that rec.arts.bodyart (a usenet group, affectionally known as r.a.b. or rab, which makes the people there rabbits (tee hee hee)) uses to mean a get together, typically to eat at a relatively inexpensive restaurant. Christine asked me if I was interested ("of course, I'm interested!") and we planned to drive down there, Christine picking me up at a rest stop somewhere on the Turnpike. After talking it over with my parents, we opted instead for Christine to pick me up at the Woodbrigde Mall, very close to where the Parkway, the Turnpike, and the Staten Island expressway meet. Rebekah, being none-too-happy about her doctor not giving her the split tongue, decided to come with us. Mike drove me down to Woodbrigde Mall and we anxiously awaited Christine in her black car. I was exceptionally hyper awaiting the two of them to arrive. They Click pic! got there, no problemo, and I introduced Mike to Rebekah and Christine. Then, we were off to Philly! But first, we decided to find a rest stop where we could take some pictures of Christine flashing (in New Jersey, since she hasn't flashed here yet). We quickly found a rest stop and, luckily for us, there was a visitors center there! Perfect! A couple of people stared at us while we took photographs, but they passed nonchalantly, and there were no kids around (Christine would never flash if there were any children present, but she poo hoos any disapproving adult's gaze). Click pic! The mix tape that Chrstine made for the trip down totally roqed! It definitely was a hits of the 80s mix and she put in a bit of Twisted Sister on the tape too! We talked and sang. Christine drives very fast, and I think it's cool when she butt-dances in the car when a good song gets on the tape. We did see one really unusual sight on the way down there. A really freaky bridge. I'm not sure if you can really see the details on this road, but there are three important things to note. Firstly, the road is a two-way bridge. You can see that by the headlights of the cars heading in the opposite direction. Secondly, you note that there is no middle divider for the bridge. I can easily drive into incoming traffic. Third and last, the only thing that indicates which lanes go for what direction are the red and green lights indicated above the road. Scary, huh? I thought it was. I wouldn't want to encounter a drunk driver on this bridge. As we approached Philly, we discovered that the directions were a little ambiguous as to where we ought to go. So, I decided to go ask for a map. The guy at the gas station was really helpful and quickly pointed out the way we should be going and that we really didn't need to purchase a map. We followed his directions and soon we found ourselves on the right road into Philly. We could see the tall buildings looming up quickly. We discovered that the directions are semi-misleading, saying that it would be a 35 mile drive to the right exit. Well, it turns out that it was only a few miles from when we entered Philly and we found ourselves on the city streets. After a bit of maneuvering through the cute streets of the city (I found myself having flashbacks of the city from when I visited the last time, which was several years ago), we found our way nearly there when Christine's car started jerking around funny. It was strange. She would take her foot off the break (in Drive) and the car wouldn't move a bit. She stepped on the gas and nothing happened, until at a certain point, it would jerk forward. Hmm... We continued driving onward to the munch location, worried about the status of Christine's car. We got to the street where the middle-eastern restaurant was located and discovered that there was a spot right in front of the restaurant. It was like the coolest luck. Christine drove the car in and put the car in reverse to squish herself into the spot when she discovered that the car wouldn't go in reverse. Aa! It looks like Christine's car was in big trouble. Angela came down from the restaurant to check up on us and we told her about the problems with it. We decided to push the car into place and Angela and I pushed it so that the car's rear wasn't sticking out of the spot. The car was going nowhere, so we decided to plop our things down upstairs and call a tow truck to repair the darn thing. The tow truck came (Christine said the guy was really cute) and picked up the car. We then chowed down on some really good middle eastern food. This was to be the beginning of quite an adventure. There was already a group of people there and I don't remember most of their names (remember, I'm really bad with names and faces), but it was definitely a diverse group of people. Some of the more memorable people (and that I could attach to names) were: Angela. She works at Infinity and she's the one that organized the munch. She was very cool and funny. Luis. He also works at the Infinity and we know each other from #bodyart (he's Freakboy). He's really cute and has an impressive display of facial jewelry and ear projects (I thought his conch pierce was really cool). Sam. Er.. Jamie. Two really cute feminas! Jamie and Jene Click pic! Jamie is the one on the left in the photograph and is one of the most intelligent, funny, and articulate teenagers I've ever met in a long time. I also have to admire a woman who dyes her hair blonde in the same manner I do. I instantly thought that she was just great! Her girlfriend (the lucky woman) is Jene. She's in college and they were visitng each other this weekend (Jamie is from Maryland or Virginia or somewhere there and Jene is studying in Philly). Jamie.. er.. Sam and I felt like we were both odd to be two of the only people there without a tongue pierce! Maybe I can convince Mike that I could get one someday. I'm beginning to find a tongue pierce very appealing. Heather sat next to me. She's from r.a.b. and I thought she was definitely an interesting person. Rebekah and her got into a verbal sparring match regarding Darby, the guy that Dori is drooly for. I also got to meet Jim and Megg, husband and wife team, both of the Infinite. Megg sat across from me and was very funny and was really intelligent. Christine and her were both very squicked about forks and tongue piercings. It was kind of funny to see both of them cringing and hiding when Rebekah would demonstrate. I wish I took a photograph of Megg, since I think she's very pretty, although you can see it at the Infinite's Website. The photographs are very beautiful of her on the site, but they don't capture her enthusiasm and funny nature. She's got the most adorible helix I've ever seen! It was a cute tiny ring. The kind of thing I might want to see on a tragus. Hmm... Jim owns the Infinite. He's really good looking, one of the best looking guys with long hair that I've seen in a long time (I'm generally not into guys with long hair, then again, I think that's Mike's influence on me). After a delicious lunch, we went over to the Infinite and chatted. I decided to buy myself some jewelry and I purchased a gorgeous 14g niobium circular bb that I decided to wear in my right ear, since I lost the ball for my cool corkscrew bb. I need to find a place that sells externally threaded balls. Argh. Jim helped me put it on (he's soo sweet!). This is going to be a tradition for me, I think. I shall buy myself some new item of jewelry at every munch or major get-together. I just need more holes to put them in! We decided to start making our way home if Rebekah was going to get pierced by Keith. We went to the bus station and got ourselves tickets on the next bus to Port Authority. Unfortunately, it looked like we were going to be too late for Rebekah to get pierced by Keith. <sigh> This was not Rebekah's weekend to get modded. Rebekah snoozed on the bus, Christine read her new Buddhism book, and I watched "The Game". What a good movie! I would review it here, but I think this entry is getting way too long, and I can reserve that entry for another day. I realized that I was lacking in a book for reading since I left by Elizabeth book in the back seat of Christine's car. Hmm.. I need to find one of the books that I purchased recently that have been lost in the black hole that is my bedroom. At Port Authority, Click pic! I showed Christine and Rebekah the statues of people standing in the information/ticket center of Port Authority. We decided to take flash pictures there too! Thankfully, there were no Port Authority police around, either that or they were extremely apathetic about the entire thing. From Port Authority, I took a bus home. What a great day. Definitely an adventure! Despite everything, I thought about how wonderful it was today. I was so relaxed despite the problems with Christine's car. Getting on the bus was an adventure, a nice one, rather than an annoyance. That was just so cool. I'm very happy and glad that I went today. I got to meet some great people, eat some great food, and have an interesting trip home. Plus, I got a new piece of jewelry! More holes to come next year.

© Copyright 1998, Eileene Coscolluela
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