Murray's Weblog

Sitting in Limbo

I am in limbo, but I'm not having too bad a time, all things considered. We landed in Philadelphia a little after 5:30 in the morning. I was considering hopping some trains and heading up to New York City to surprise Bob, but I was tired, wanted to conserve money, and besides it looks like I've come down with a cold.

And as always works, if I count back 48 hours before the first symptoms I can place myself in a crowded place where it would be easy to pick up a bug: the Pride festival. It's not too bad: I feel run down and I have that horrible taste in my throat. It made it impossible to sleep on the first flight so I landed in pretty much of a daze.

I hopped a train to downtown Philadelphia. They have a pretty cool and extensive train/subway system that you never hear about. I've always been a subway nut, and I love seeing the different systems in cities around the world. In Colorado where I grew up subways were completely non-existent. (My hometown once had an extensive trolley system, but that's another story.) The stations in Philadelphia were clean, but very plain and painted in rather drab colors.

From the downtown Suburban Station I walked along some pretty, grassy malls around some big museums. I found a park bench and alternated between grabbing a couple minutes of sleep and reading more passages out of the Clinton book. I was kinda paranoid of having something stolen if I slept too soundly.

I walked back to the 30th Street Station which is the primary "Grand Central Station" for Philly. About five years ago when I was living in NYC and working for Merck the project I managed had two teams in the Philadelphia suburbs (Blue Bell and West Point). About once a month I would hop the Amtrak down to 30th Street Station, rent a car and drive to the Merck plant. Revisiting 30th Street Station was like saying "hi" to an old friend. I really love the old grand train stations. I'm guessing they had been built to look so regal because for a long time—until the era or the automobile—they represented the "front gate" to a city.

At noon I hopped another train back to the airport, intent on waiting out the remaining hours at the airport. (I've always had a terrible paranoia about missing flights.) I picked up some Nyquil at Walgreens and drugged myself up so (a) hopefully the symptoms would subside and I might sleep on the plane and (b) I could slog through the next 16 hours in a nice cold-medicine-induced haze.

I read a few pages of Clinton's book at a time. His account of his childhood is extensive, and although it does build a good foundation from which to understand where he comes from as a person, it's more than a little boring. Hopefully it'll pick up soon.

A surprising development, I just got a text message from my old Filmmaking Partner in Crime, Amanda Raine. It appears she is in London right now, so after almost four years we are finally going to manage a rendezvous! That'll be really cool.

Exterior of 30th Street Station

Posted by Murray Todd Williams at June 23, 2004 04:47 PM