You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby

Hello again Philly girls, after a VERY long hiatus! I must admit I have been cheating on the blog with Facebook, and a girl only has so much time to spend staring at a screen and typing her way to a carpal tunnel coma. Some things have changed...better apartment, better job, but same good man and vertically challenged dog. And while Facebook is undeniably addictive, I always knew I would return to the blog when I had something important to discuss. And now, I do! For you see I must tout the brilliant talent and discerning photographic eye of my dear friend and all-around good guy, Chuck Anerino.

Chuck is one of those lucky people who stumble upon hidden talent in the most unexpected ways. Around the time he was becoming a dad he got a top-of-the-line digital SLR, read a few guidebooks, and presto - instant artistic genius was born. He found he could capture the innocent beauty of babes and breathe new life into the tried and tired family portrait. When you look at Chuck's work, you don't just see cute kids - you see joy, laughter, ambition, and struggle. You see real feeling. You see a window into their souls.

So for all you Urban (and not-so-urban) Mommies out there - and I know there are a lot of you - who are dreading waiting on line with thirty fussy three-year-olds at the Sears Portrait Studio, give Anerino Originals a try. And don't worry, Chuck's not some snooty artiste where it's his way or the highway - he's a regular guy and devoted dad, and he knows that parenting comes with plenty of its own hassles. Portraits should be easy, and he'll accommodate to your needs - he'll travel to you, or help pick a good spot if you need inspiration. All at very reasonable fees. Let Chuck show you how beautiful your baby really can be!

Anerino Originals
http://anerinooriginals.blogspot.com
anerinooriginals@gmail.com
302.798.0757

The 5th Wheel. A lament.

I've noticed a disturbing trend. I’ll refer to it as the Coupling Effect. Boy meets girl. Girl falls in love with boy. Boy and girl decide to go on lots of couple dates with their other couple friends and leave their fabulous single friends to miss them desperately. Don't get me wrong, I am quite happy when friends become involved in loving and happy relationships, but where does that leave me? And yes, before we go any further, it's always, always about me.

I am completely satisfied with my current state, sure I sometimes miss the big spoon to my little one. But I have pretty much the most awesome collection of friends any one person could ever have. I'm never at a loss for someone to laugh, dance, be completely inappropriate with or someone to completely inappropriately dance with. Now here's my concern. As one of the dwindling singlers of the group, I find myself excluded ever so slightly in favor of The Couple Dates. True, this is a completely unfounded and petty jealousy, but I fear that one night while all my couple friends are on their respective dates with my other couple friends, I will be left alone knitting booties for my cats and the next thing you know…BAM I'm 50, have created a permanent buttock imprint on my couch, and emit the faint aroma of cheese.

So, I’ll ask you. What is the draw of the couple date? I don't think I was ever on one that I enjoyed in all of my relationshiped time. I always felt like it was leading to some awkward moment where we start placing keys in a bowl and hoping for the best. Maybe couples just feel comfortable around other couples because they have transcended beyond the life we singles lead (perusing missed connections on a daily basis in the off chance that someone I drunkenly bumped into the previous night thought I was hot.)

I digress.

I’ll leave you with this. If you are a couple, don't leave your singles out to dry. Take us out. Play with us. We need your love most of all.

Everything you didn't know you needed to know.

Ladies. Find everything you ever wanted to know about landing a man here. I will be perusing the local news tonight to find a sports figure whom I find attractive so that I can use that to converse with a male. Oh, and rub my leg at a bus stop. Too bad the one outside my building was demolished during the Phillies win, 

Holidayz

Along with the Holidays comes a barrage of parties and a barrage of hopes that Mr. Right, or at least Mr. Moderately Steady Make out, might be a friend of a friend that said friends just forgot to mention before. Or maybe that they deemed undatable do to some character flaw that I may just be desperate enough to overlook. Thus far, no such luck.

But it's OK, what they lack in mens, they makeup for in delicious holiday treats. Last night was a packed one. First, I met a college friend and all of her new friends at Tequila's. And let me tell ya, after about one of 2 margarita's, those repressed college memories started flowing like brain farts after a memory lane enchilada. I felt 8 pairs of eyes staring at me in judgement. So of course. I thought it best to drink more.

Next stop, friend's holiday party, which was wonderful and I was just sober enough to enjoy that my friends weren't. But I had to make an appearance so I left for the third. The third was the coolest/ weirdest holiday party I've ever been to. But I found it difficult to socialize do to the fact that I couldn't tear my eyes of the 2 hour long hippy dance off taking up the majority of the living room, while we crowded to the sides. It's all a blur of wine and patchouli. So around 3 am we decide to cab it home, and some kid stole our cab from under our noses. So cabbie felt bad as he drove by and I gave him a thumbs down and took us as well. And then began the most awkward cab ride ever. This dude, my friend and I in the back/ Her bf in the front. When said dude was safely zonked out, I proceeded to have a convo with my friends. Dood would wake occasionally to heartily agree with me on whatever point I was making, then zonk again.

Then I had to ride with him in silence between my friends' stop and mine. At his stop I was like "Well, see ya". And he (obviously gay) leans in gives me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and left. As I watched in shock the cabbie said "Hmm.. I think I gotta start doing that with all of my costumers."

Moral of the story. Holiday love is where you least expect it. For, me it's in a cab smelling of second hand patchouli.

Sugar and Spice

At the beginning of Girl About Philly, we started a little competition called the Cupcake Showdown. It was our excuse to sample some of Philadelphia's best sweet treats. While the showdown experienced a slow down, my personal affinity for the art of the cupcake only increased with time. And before I get to my latest ranking, I will briefly mention that I am yet to meet the match of my two all-time favorites - the chocolate peanut-butter from Naked Chocolate, and the banana with cream cheese icing from Billy's in New York (technically out of our competition's geographic boundaries).

But finally this weekend I got a taste of what Brown Betty is cookin'...and it was good. Brown Betty Dessert Boutique is one of those feel-good places with a story that you could definitely see becoming a movie. The tiny corner shop has feminine touches and a cool sense of girl-power and comradary that is palpable. You can imagine the staff singing out loud while they mix flour and eggs and breaking into powdered sugar pillow fights at the drop of a hat. The kind of place that you wished you had thought of (and had the guts and baking talent to pull off). It just looks like fun...and smells like heaven.

Then of course, there were the cupcakes. I tried the chocolate red velvet cake with cream cheese icing -- which definitely gives Billy's RVC a run for its money (and is a lot closer to my apartment). My sis had the strawberry sour cream which was subtly sweet and a creative combination. Both were fresh, moist and delicious. Brown Betty, you've officially got a new BFF.

And the scoring:

Appearance- 8; Cakiness- 9; Icing- 9; Sweetness- 8; Freshness- 10; Overall flavor combination yumminess- 9

Total: 53

Brown Betty Dessert Boutique
1030 N. 2nd St.
215.629.0999
www.brownbettydesserts.com

Funky

So, last night I finally saw the light at the end of the self-imposed funk tunnel. The past few weeks, while splotched with the occassional ray of sunshine (the most notable of which would be the discovery of Salted Carmel Hot Chocolate from Starbucks ..nomnomnomnom) have been kinda sucky. The crappy weather that just happened to coincide with layoffs at work and overall drama didn't bode well for my mental state. I tried to power through it with DIPLO on Friday but I couldn't even make it to his set. The amount of scenagers alone was staggering, not to mention that no one had a problem with invading my personal space. So I peaced and got 13 hours of sleep, which allowed me to knock down this oncoming cold. Holler.

Last night I went to Beau Monde with my friend's parents, then went with the ladies to shake our collective shit to the musical stylings of DJ DEEJAY djay, which was wonderful per usual. I even got a missed connection out of it. Although in full disclosure I don't think it counts because I told him to write it. But, Imma take em how I can get em. My friend said he looked like he was 22, but hey.. at least he's legal? I still have to respond.

I'm gonna be honest, as much as a truly do enjoy being single, the winter coldness is making me miss someone to cuddle up to (which is probably why I had a set back and made out with a past hook up last week.) Ah well, we all have our setbacks, and mine happened to come in a chodey form. And my cats are reaching their spoiled teenager phase where they are embarrassed by their momma and don't want to snuggle with me any more.

OK I'm gonna wrap this up, because my thumb is still smarting from trying to force zip myself into a cute dress in H&M. Europe won that battle, my thumb and dignity lost.

And the Phils took it

As I stood on Broad street last night with bottle of Blackhaus in my right hand, champagne in my left I realized that I will probably never again witness anything like last night. I'm oh so glad I put aside my fear of douchey crowds and partied like a rock star with the rest of Philly. I watched the game from my office and with the win ran down 6 flights of stairs to get outside because I was too impatient to wait for an elevator. I won't soon forget what I was a part of, and not just for the fact that I will most likely smell of a brewery for the next week or so. Best part of the night was looking up to see Green Man from It's Always Sunny raving on a bus shelter (that's no longer there.) As it rained beer, and god knows what else down on me, we weren't strangers, we were 100 thousand strong that collectively ended our 20 year long dry spell. And it was good.

Fires in the middle of the street, flipped cars and looting of FYE aside, I have never seen so many happy people in one place. And I don't think I ever expected to see it in Philly. Believe me, I'm not the biggest sports buff, but thanks to my partner at work, I've listened to every game and yesterday was able to spout off every date of each of the last Philly championship wins. I don't even recognize myself. So Philly, let's revel in it.

See you at the parade.