Divination

Saturday afternoon Meredith had a plan to put this together from the roof of The Divine Lorraine Hotel. That plan involved breaking into an abandoned building in North Philadelphia, climbing 10 stories, filming the sunset, and then sneaking back out again. In the dark. Because it's dark in abandoned buildings once the sun sets. All while avoiding its regular population of hobos, crack addicts, and down on their luck millionaires. I'd like to pretend she and Kate asked me to come along for protection. Because it would be stupid for two young women to do that alone. But let's be honest, nobody's gonna believe that. We all know how much I love roofs, abandoned things, and climbing. And don't act like this creepy building isn't just asking for a good mounting. It's been staring me in the forehead all my life. The only question is why did it take so long to do it.

The first challenge, after finding a parking spot for Meredith's Prius, was working up the nerve to walk up these stairs.

Creepstairs

If this were the most disturbing part of the event there would be a lot more pictures of the 2nd and 3rd floor crack dens. As it was, we were too preoccupied with the debris, empty Cheetos bags, and dirty mattresses to pullout our iPhones until we made it over to the big building. 

But are you getting a load of this place?

Here's the thing though. The only time I was actually about to shit my pants was just before we made it out to the roof. As I was about to grab the top of the rusted-out metal ladder leading up there, I saw the two socks that sheathed the topmost handhold. Which I was about to grab. With my hands. And I hope that that's the closest I've ever come to contracting a venereal disease.

That scare was totally worth it though, because look at this view:


And also this one:


And this one, which I sent to my dad just to brag:

And this one, with the ladies, on the roofs:

And then the sun went down. And it was pretty awesome. And we felt like kings/queens.

But then we had to walk back down 10 flights of stairs. In an abandoned building. By flashlight. Waiting for the moment when the guy frying eggs in the dark finally noticed us and the camera went black.

No, but seriously. That guy freaked me out.