Yesterday was nuts

Right?! So crazy. Rittenhouse was teeming with people all day Tuesday, tourists mostly. By the overwhelmed looks on their faces and the brand new Drexel and Penn t-shirts, it was pretty obvious that the kiddies are arriving for their first year of college. In droves. Just imagine that you're a parent of one of these students, already scared for them to be leaving home, driving them into a big city filled with miscreants and near-do-wells, starting to unload the car when huh? An earthquake! (See Dawne's post below). Suddenly your head explodes and you turn into a zombie.

This is the only thing that I can think that led to the hordes of bewildered people in and around the Square last night. If you looked outside, you saw tons of parents slowly stumbling from one block to the next, whilst their children looked equal parts scared and annoyed by them. We welcomed the parent-tourist-zombies and their young into Capogiro, and introduced them to a wondrous new treat (I've never explained what gelato is more than I did last night), and they loved our urban chic-ness and stainless steel "spaceship" cafe. They were adorable. For a Tuesday night, we were slammed. We were slinging gelato like mad people. There were so many maps of Philadelphia strewn across our tables. We were giving directions and suggestions for people for hours. Crazy!

Then came the grad students. After the parents went back to their hotel rooms and the students went to go cry or drink it off in their new dorms, the older ones came. They were pretty awesome. It's really nice to get a new perspective of Philadelphia from folks who just moved here. Makes it seem shinier somehow. We had the grad students pouring in until just about closing time, when we finally pulled in the tables and breathed out the chaos of the day. Welcome back, y'all.