there's always something happening in a big city. that's why cities have such character, why i was dying to move to one. how glamourous, to live alone in the city, to find my own favorite places that are off the tourist paths. i wanted to make the whole thing mine by living in it, like we used to own words in grade school by speaking them. to own my own piece of a city, what a dream that would be. but it turned out that parking was always either a cheap hassel or an expensive luxury, and the blocks between one trendy place and another can seem very far to walk when your legs are becoming icicles. gosh, does philly seem to have a lot of winter to walk through. all in all, i haven't driven that last 6 miles to center city more than a few times a month since i moved here last fall. lately, however, the nights have been warm, and i've been thinking again about getting to know the city better than just how to find my way in and out of it. so many fun things are supposed to happen here, and i should take advantage of them. and today, i did. the best part was that it wasn't planned, and it wasn't complicated, and it wasn't expensive. there was a rally for the one campaign, supporting american aid for the HIV/AIDS crisis in africa, and it was a nice day, and i didn't have it in me to study another ten hours... so i went. i sat on independence mall, let the spiky points of grass prick the bottoms of my bare legs. the sun began to brown my shoulders. i waited with a few hundred people, and onto the stage walks bono. i think, perhaps, there is no musician i respect more than him, that confuses me more than him, that intrigues me more than he does. he spoke with such conviction and intelligence that i was even more of all of those things when he was done. on my way out, in an effort to avoid the mob, i headed for a "back entrance", which just happened to be the same way he was headed. i almost bumped right into him. craaazy. i walked to an outside cafe in old city then, bought an iced tea and a salad, and let the sun shine. what a wonderful day. i expected to feel some sort of guilt for missing all of those productive hours, for sitting here spending another one writing about it. i don't. there's there's always something happening in a big city, and i'm always missing it. except for today, when i didn't miss anything at all.