A few weeks back my friend Mike asked if I wanted to join him for a trip to Philly – it had already been planned and booked, all I had to do was say yes.

Of course I said yes, and with it being so busy at work the past few weeks, I promptly forgot about it. Which was actually quite nice, except the part where I realized I didn’t tell anyone I was going. Which I figured out on Friday night after my sister asked “What’s up this weekend? What are we doing?” Oops.

Friday night before the trip I spent with my friend Chris, having dinner and cocktails and chatting about everything going on in our lives. Chris is my twin (in that we have the same birthday and basically used to be inseparable), but over the past couple of years, between work and relationships, we’ve have seen each other less. So Friday was an amazing treat and we vowed to never go more than two weeks without seeing each other. I’ll let you know how that goes in two weeks. :)

I grabbed my bag from my sister who so thoughtfully drove it in town for me and made my way down Tremont to Andrew’s apartment. I’ve joked about it in the past, but I think it’s fair to say I’m a permanent fixture in the gayborhood when I can’t make it 3 blocks without running into friends eating outdoors, restaurant managers hanging out of windows calling my name, and a certain straight(!) who shall remain nameless. Mostly because he’s a bit of an asshole. But that is neither here nor there ;) I love having a ‘hood. Even if I don’t live there. YET.

I made my way to Andrew’s where I would “stay” for the night. And by “stay” I mean barely put my head down because we had to be up at 3:30 when Mike would pick us up to leave for Philly.

We left sometime around 4:00 am and had a lovely drive filled with coffee, sunrises over Connecticut, showtunes and Lady Gaga.

We got to Philly at 9:30 am. Check in was at 4:00 so we spent the day walking around, snapping pics, shopping, lunching, nearly getting mugged (oh that was me and apparently someone stuck their hand in my purse? And a member of waitstaff saw? Which makes no sense because he told me well after the alleged muggers did this AND despite the fact that my iPhone, wallet and iPod were sitting right there on top, NOTHING was taken?).

We went back to the hotel – which was newly remodeled and GORGEOUS – showered up, hit the liquor store and hosted an impromptu hotel party.

(Andrew announced to a street full of people that his shirt was “Gayer than Christmas”. I’d have to agree. It is gayer than Christmas, but also completely adorable. Especially with the bowtie.)

Later we went out for Dominic’s birthday dinner (pictured above in the pink button down), back to the hotel for more drinks, and then to a club that confused me because of SO MANY MIRRORS. At one point Andrew said “I keep making eye contact with this guy …. and then I realize …. it’s ME.”

That was a good quote but the two BEST quotes of the night came from birthday boy Dominic:

Immediately after taking a shot of jager:

“That …. just made my face stop.”

This is why we don’t DO jager shots.

Immediately after seeing a pack of transexuals heading in the direction of the bar we were hitting up next:

Dominic: “Why are trannies so tall?”

Andrew: “Um …. because they’re MEN. In HEELS?”

Dominic: “Oh … yeah….”

The next morning, I got up, ran to the Museum (and up the “Rocky stairs” of course), then hit the gym before coffee and a long leisurely brunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around checking out South Street before heading back the hotel, showering and getting ready for dinner at Dominic’s mother’s house. She so graciously decided to host us.

Oh my god the food. So much food. Food for days. FOR WEEKS. After we got there, had some wine and ate she asked if we like the APPETIZERS. Oh holy jesus. There was more. SO MUCH MORE. A whole dinner. THEN dessert. Which consisted of THREE kinds of biscotti and a whiskey cake.

None of us could move after. We lay there like lumps (well except when we hopped out to hit up Wawa).

We played some wii and just relaxed all night. Which is basically what we did for the remainder of the trip.

The trip was lovely. The drive back was NOT. We hit so much traffic on the way back, instead of taking 5 hours like it did on the way down, it took us nearly EIGHT to get back. Gross.

Oh well. If that was the only snag in the trip it was well worth it. Plus I got to spend more time with Mike & Andrew and we all know I love that :)

For the full set of pics, click here. And if you’re feeling saucy, here’s a clip from the hotel party of the boys … kind of doing the Single Ladies dance. Except it’s really just a mess of laughter and button popping. This is why I love them.

And finally, can we talk about this? And which one is real (the one on the left. The one on the right is photoshopped. Both are horrific.)

On second thought, let’s NOT talk about that.