Philadelphia Day 2

Yesterday:
- Moved in to new apartment. It's better than I expected in some ways, worse in others. It's a first-floor apartment, so that means it's actually half below ground and everyone in the parking lot can see directly in to my apartment. I do, however, have brand-new carpet and reasonably new appliances. Parking (which is a free-for-all) appears to be scarce during the evenings.
- Went to "Pre-Employment Processing" at work. In other words, did 1/2 hour of paperwork and proved I'm a U.S. Citizen, and got my photo taken for my ID badge. Hopefully it's better than my MN drivers' license. I made one new friend there; he worked for Boeing for a few years as an Engineer in L.A., but is now doing contract administration (business).
- Had dinner and a few beers with my Dad at Iron Hill Brewery, a nicer restaurant that brews their own beers (excellent!). It's been a long while since I've had such a long conversation between just the two of us.

Today:
- Went shopping for furniture, since I'm lacking dining room furniture, a coffee table, dresser, and a nightstand. I ended up purchasing a dresser and some dining room chairs at IKEA (found a decent dining table next to the apartment dumpster--claimed!)
- Got an early birthday present from Dad, a GPS for my car! The roads around here are really confusing, since none of them go north/south, not even the major ones. Most of the roads are based on the river, which runs to the south-west, and none of them are straight for very long. They also aren't named in any sequential pattern, so you really have to know the area to know where you're going. Also, the typical street sign is about 2" x 16" and brown, so finding and reading them is nearly impossible.
- With the aforementioned transactions, I triggered a fraud flag on my credit card. It seems buying $400 of gas in a drive across the country and then spending $500 more at stores is suspicious... who knew?
- Dropped Dad off at the airport, which represented the last of my many goodbyes. It was hard, and now I'm all depressed, but I have plenty of things to do to take my mind off things.
- Went "grocery" shopping, which consisted of stopping at the Wawa store on the way home from the airport. These things are everywhere; they're pretty much little convenience stores, except they don't sell gas. I only got bread and milk. I'll buy more food later when it's not rush hour.

Tomorrow is my first day at work!