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Monday, October 27, 2025

This past week, Kileen’s siblings came to visit us in Philadelphia. One of my favorite things about having family and friends in town is how it gently wrecks routine. You think you’re hosting. What you’re really doing is rediscovering your own city through someone else’s curiosity.

This visit followed the pattern perfectly. One night started with the usual tourist stuff and somehow ended with us “borrowing” pumpkins from a bar along the water beneath the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. No plan, no agenda, just the city slowly nudging us toward a better story than the one we thought we were telling.

We also managed to close down Rita’s Italian Ice for the season, which still makes me laugh. Kileen and I have walked past that place more times than I can count, never stopping once on our own. Apparently all it takes is out of town energy to finally say yes to the obvious.

Sometimes the best way to experience your life is to let someone else visit it.