Stinko's...ok but you can decorate cheaply

I HATE Kinko's. HATE. I worked there for over a year, when I was too old to work there. They are a terrible company to work for. However, I got to make some pretty cool stuff there for free. Its a bit overpriced to the public, so any copy shop will do.
Firstly, their oversize printing machines rule. They won't let you blow up a copyrighted picture, but I enlarged a few of my own to 24x36 (about $9/sq ft). You can even have them printed on canvas and then put them on stretchers(about $12/sq ft)! The downside is that the inks are not archival and fade after a few years, but you'd probably be tired of the same old photo anyway. The blueprint machines are also great, because you can enlarge a contrasty black and white photo for only 50 cents/sq ft. I once made ghetto wall paper this way, and just tacked them up.
The other gift I liked to make were notebooks.
I'd print out a photo on glossy paper then have them bind it with fiber paper. Overpriced, they are about $5/each, but I'm sure a non-Kinko's could be cheaper. I also make their Holiday Calendars with photos from whichever trip was my last, this year it was Paris. Most people I've worked with at Kinko's live up to the stereotype of being completely unhelpful and/or clueless, so have your files all ready to go, and be REALLY SPECIFIC about your job. Some other cheap decorating ideas: laminated placemats, color copy transparency sun catchers, greeting cards and magnets.

Seedy Hotels can Make for Great Stories!

Before one of my trips to Vancouver, I noticed a big airfare sale from Philly to Seattle- $199 roundtrip. With investigation, I figured out it was $200 cheaper to fly to Seattle, spend the night, then take the 3 hour busride to Vancouvs. Since I'd never been to Seattle, this sounded like a great idea. I immediately booked the cheapest hotel I could find that was in "downtown Seattle" at $69 a night.
Now, you must remember that every experience builds character, and to find humor in everything. This is the precise attitude Beth and I needed when we arrived at the Imperial Hotel, which I tried to google, but I think it must be gone by now. (This is an actual photo from the window of our room.) Basically, we arrived after taking the bus (no cabs for us) and walked right into The Chelsea Hotel circa 1979. The many, many people outside offered us an array of the finest pharmaceuticals. We walked in to a "lady of the evening" arguing with the manager "I told yall I'd have the rent next week!" Rent?? Next week? Luckily, I was with Beth, Beth who, like me, laughs at everything. And we laughed, and laughed. I forgot to mention the woman was wearing the cheapest pink nighty I'd ever seen, like the ones they sell at those stores called One Price $7 and the like. Anyway, we attempted to check in and were sent to our room in an ancient elevator. We unlock the door and ZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!! electricity EVERYWHERE! Instead of light fixtures, this room just had dangling exposed wires, and when I flicked the switch they made a lightshow! So we went back to the front desk, and got a different room. This one wouldn't open..so BACK to the desk...finally the manager just gave us the maid's key which opened every room. He probably figured we were the classiest and most trust worthy people to every pass over the threshold.
The room... so, you know how hotels used to have a bathroom down the hall, for the whole floor to share? Well, this hotel was probably the first to have ensuite bathrooms, and with all of the original plumbing! The sink was in the middle of the room, and probably from 1950. The toilet was next to a half wall that led to a curtainless shower, much like a school gym. I tried to take a photo of it, but it was seriously too small. Just came out all tiles. The bed linens....lets just say I slept with my hood on that night.
Downstairs there was this strange sitting room with a giant plate glass window facing the wheeling and dealing of drugs and bodies. It was like a big screen TV. Except we kept forgetting it was a 2 way mirror. Chaos vs. fishbowl. Beth and I made friends with the night manager, a dude named Alex who was about 23 and seemed "cool", but turned out to be a weirdo (SURPRISE!). He later called Beth and told her he was coming to visit her- and did! So weird.
I consider myself pretty street smart or whatever, so I was totally fine staying at a fleabag. Seattle itself was amazing, I'd love to go back. We went to the Space Needle at night, and had a pound of fries for $4 at a bar called Little Five Points. We wandered by SubPop and Sit and Spin. The hotel was right near Pike's Market, where we had breakfast in the morning. Seattlites are so friendly its unreal. So many people asked us where we were from. Also, every store sold an abundance of Hypercolor. Is it made there or something? I still don't understand.
Loved Seattle though, all 24 hours of it, and I will definitely go back.
So, in conclusion, don't be boring and take the quickest way from A to B. The kooky, the crazy, the seedy, the odd....all the things relished by those who truly taste life, by me.

I Was a Tourist in my Own City
I've lived in Philadelphia for the better part of 8 years, and yet I haven't visited most of the "tourist attractions." I suppose this happens when you live somewhere, you not only try to avoid tourists, but you take the things you have for granted. Or you figure you're there, and you'll get to it "someday." Being that I will be leaving the City of Brotherly Love soon, I figure I should probably make "someday" sooner rather than later, or I'll totally miss the boat on the cultural and historical things I've been putting off.
So, since yesterday seemed like the first lovely Sunday in what seems like forever, I decided to get a newspaper and check the listings of free attractions around the city that I've been missing out on. My first point of interest was the Rodin Museum (free/"suggested donation box" $3). I'd promised an ex that I'd wait to go there with him, but realized he's STILL an ex, and therefore what was I waiting for? I walked over to the Museum Mile, and was greeted by Rodin's "The Thinker" infront of the adorned gates into the museum. Once inside the gates, I found a tranquil garden complete with flowering trees, benches, a fountain (not on yet) and stupid couples in love and making out. A replica of the famous piece "The Gates of Hell" sit outside the entrance to the museum building. The museum itself is tiny, a main hall with several tiny galleries off of it. Most of the work was cast from Rodin's models in 1925, after his death. The giftshop was closed, which is better anyway since I was trying to make the day a "free" day. (I did donate $3 into the donation box- support the arts!)
After the museum, I walked over to an Alexander Calder (a Philadelphia native) mobile that has recently been installed on Ben Franklin Parkway (the Museum Mile.) There were talks of a Calder family museum, but I don't think funding went through, so there are some of his "stabiles" and a mobile in a grassy area in between the Art Museum and Logan Square.

I headed back down the Parkway toward Swann Fountain at Logan Square. Its a gorgeous giant fountain, that at night you can secretly swim in (just ignore the bums and pretend the water CAN'T be diseased). Logan Square is one of the original five squares in Philadelphia, and like the others was once used as a burial ground. I don't think most visitors, or Philly natives at that, realize that our parks are over former graveyards! Totally creepy. The last public execution was actually held at Logan Square, and now ironically it is one of the most beautiful spots in the city. The Swann Fountain is another Alexander Calder great. It reminds me of my first year in Philadelphia, where everything seemed so far away...and now the city seems the size of a shoebox!

I headed over to Old(e) City to wander around the alleyways of Colonial homes that I always walk past. I passed the Corn Exchange, which has famously become the site of the home of the nerds on MTV's The Real World Philadelphia- probably the most boring of all Real Worlds, EVER... Seriously, what a bunch of lame dorks. Right beside the house is Betsy Ross's house. It was closed, which is just as well as I didn't feel like paying to get in anyway. Poor thing has to cower in the shadow of an MTV Landmark.
Elfreth's Alley is the oldest street in Philadelphia. It has been consistently occupied since the early 1700s. And I had never seen it!The houses are TINY, and go for at least $1 million (and I am sure haunted!) Some of them were part of the Underground Railroad, and have 2 or 3 sub basements, which I find really interesting. The street is tucked away amidst busy streets, and really give a feeling of what Colonial life may have been like. You can take tours, but this was Sunday evening, and like I said, I'm broke.
Headed back toward South Street, I come across Headhouse Square. I probably walk under this daily, but decided to stop and read the signs infront of it. The building is mainly a large tower, with extended covered walkway. It served as the city's main marketplace area, where farmers could hawk their fruits, veggies, meats and other wares. Today its still used as a marketplace for crappy artisans that your mom would probably LOVE. I wonder what the building part is used for, I've never actually seen anyone go in it or the lights on or anything. I'd love to see what is up there. Almost home and eager to meet my friends for a drink, I turn around to take a good look at Modernism amongst the Colonial architecture- The Society Hill Towers, designed by I.M. Pei. Pei also designed the "pyramid" entranceway at the Louvre in Paris. Alone, I'm not a big fan of the structures. They kind of look like a dorm to me, but set behind the Colonial backdrop, I see what Pei was striving for. They seem to emerge from the rowhomes as completely foreign bodies, yet their texture echoes the cobblestone streets below.
My tourist day cost me $3, the donation I gave to the Rodin Museum, and approximately 5000 sneezes, as the pollen was a blowing, and trying to kill me.