Weird Night

Oh my God, I had such a weird night. Normally I give myself an hour to get to Philadelphia for my rehearsals, but today I decided to leave an hour & 15 minutes early. It's a good thing I did, because the big highway that leads to the Ben Franklin Bridge, called Admiral Wilson Blvd., was closed because of flooding, and they were rerouting everyone through the streets of Camden (right across the river from Philly) to get to the bridge.

I was thinking, "Well, it's a good thing I left early, since I'm stuck in traffic," but I figured I'd just follow the line of cars through the streets and find my way to the bridge. No such luck. As soon as we got off the highway, some cars started turning left, others went straight, and some even turned right (which didn't make sense at all, because that was the opposite direction from the bridge). So I started to follow one car, and he and I found our way back to the highway, but it was still closed in that area too. Then I decided not to follow him and figure it out myself. Except that wasn't the best idea either, since I'm totally unfamiliar with Camden, and for good reason.

Camden is a really, really, really poor town, and it was rated America's most dangerous city. I was driving through areas with nothing but dilapidated and boarded up houses (ostensibly crack houses) with hookers on the corner, I kid you not. Camden is where the state prison is. It's definitely not a place anyone should get lost.

So I started getting scared and called Ray, who managed to navigate me back to the bridge. He said, "If anyone runs out in front of your car, hit them. Don't stop." He was serious. He said that that was some advice given to him by a cop one time when he was in Camden (Ray went to Rutgers in Camden...I think the campus is in a slightly better area, though). And Ray told me definitely not to come back that way, because you don't want to be in Camden after dark.

Well, anyway, since I got lost and there was traffic, I got to Philadelphia with no time to spare. I hurriedly parked at a parking garage and ran to the rehearsal building. On my way there, I got stuck behind this guy and girl who were kind of taking their time, moseying down the street, and I couldn't get around them. I almost elbowed my way past them until I saw that they were going into the same building. Turns out I almost clobbered Siebel and Valentin. Good one, Maren.