Today's adventures:
1. Go to the Wayne Art Center to see their juried craft exhibit. Get there about 5 minutes after opening time to find that the gallery is not open. Wait for a while and find someone who can open the gallery, rather reluctantly, informing me that they're not really open due to the holiday (what?!). At that point I only had about 20 minutes to look at more than 100 items in the show, many of which I would have spent far more time with, at least one of which I might have bought if they had opened on time, or had let me know on their web site that they would be closed today.

2. Race home to pick up Caitlin to take her downtown to a reunion of her summer camp friends. The event is only supposed to last 3 hours, which is not really enough time to drive home and back again, so I set myself up in the lobby of the hotel and do work until 3:00. Caitlin tells me she wants to spend more time with her friends walking around South Street, Philadelphia's funkiest neighborhood. Being the wicked mother that I am, I tell her no and start driving home. She turns on the tears and I drive her back to meet her friends. Cost of parking at the hotel: $12.00

3. Head to the Rittenhouse Hotel for tea and pastries. Cost of tea: $15.00. Cost of parking at the hotel: $18.00. Cost of calories: untold thousands. Discover that my phone which had been working earlier no longer functions (wireless mode is off and will not turn on). Also discover that there are no pay phones left anywhere because everyone else in the world has at least one functioning cell phone. Finally find a pay phone tucked in the back of the hotel and call home collect and get my husband to call my daughter to track her down and let her know I'm coming to get her.

4. Head to South Street to pick Caitlin up. Take 45 minutes to go 13 blocks. Find her shivering in the cold because she had no idea when I would be there to pick her up.

5. Head home. Have a woman pull out of parking space directly at me, causing me to slide on the wet payment and come within millimeters of hitting her. Open window and call her every profanity I can think of, alarming some pedestrians. Get no satisfaction because the stupid bitch refuses to make eye contact. Finally relieve some frustration when I get to cut her off before she heads in a different direction.

6. Total cost of day:
a. cash outlay: $45.00 (plus the cost of Caitlin's attendance at the reunion which was about $27)
b. decision by Caitlin never to ask me to drive her anywhere in the city again (not my ulterior motive, but it would have been a good one)
c. my decision never to drive in Philadelphia on a Saturday again.

And now back to my piece of shit Sprint phone that has stopped working less than two weeks after I got it. I've been on hold with Sprint for 30 minutes now, and was told about 15 minutes ago that "a wireless technician would be right with me". Fucking assholes. This entire day has been confirmation of the depths of stupidity to which human beings can sink.