Anyone volunteering or going to see the Pope in Philly?
http://www.popefrancisvisit.com/schedule-category/pope-francis-visit-philadelphia-schedule/I actually signed up as a volunteer. I'm not catholic, I'm actually a Christian but I do not believe in organized religion. More of an old-school do it as Jesus did (did he ever actually attend an organized church?).
But I really do like Pope Francis for the most part. I think as a Catholic he's doing his best to really reach out to the 99% and I always had 'Seeing the Pope speak' on my Bucket List of things to do since I was a kid (I did the inauguration in 2008 and I'll do my first convention in 2016).
I'd be interested in seeing who else was thinking of going. If you were thinking of coming to Philly but couldn't find accommodations, I might be able to help out a few DUers. I'm in Wilmington and the Joe Biden Train Station is just cross town from me which will take you right into Center City Philly.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I have a little problem with agoraphobia and paranoia. Get me in a crowd, and I start worrying who's behind me. It worked out great whenever I went out to eat with my brother: we both wanted to sit with our backs to the wall. 
He won, because he was seriously paranoid, I'm only a little paranoid.
But hey, a paranoid is better than none.
-- Mal
I've developed and nurtured a few phobias with age. Mostly I was bulletproof when I was young, except for a very particular form of acrophobia. I'm not afraid of heights, I've clambered around on cliffs and ridges a lot in my day, but I am seriously phobic about edges -- balcony railings, roof edges, etc. It's classic phobic response, freezing in place, sweating, trembling. Standard Freudian psych tells us there must be a trauma in childhood that caused it, so I figure being burned by my grandmother's cigarette on the balcony overlooking the local swimming pool accounts for it. It wasn't the first time the woman had burned me (not a nice lady), and it was a 3rd-degree burn in the arm while we were pressed up against the railing by the crowds (although I don't think that has to do with my crowd problem, which is not the same order of phobia at all). Could even have been an accident, but it is the only event I can think of to account for the peculiar nature of the phobia. Needless to say, knowing the probable cause does nada for alleviating it.
Yours sounds like a case of compulsion, which is always good to deal with because work-arounds can be devised. I'll make sure never to leave you without transport!
(Reminds me a little of the old Peanuts comic: Linus doesn't want to go away to summer camp, because "what if my parents moved away and didn't tell me?"
-- Mal
... one of his songs is an invocation to Petakoah (sp?), who is a Lenape storm spirit. My brother and I got him to sing it at an outdoor concert in Cape May one time, and before he had finished it, a virtual hurricane had sprung up out of a clear sky. We had to do some serious shifting to get everything unplugged and packed away before the storm wrecked it.
My late aunt refused to take showers during a thunderstorm. OTOH, I knew a lady who loved them, believed they were an expression of her power as an Earth Mother.
-- Mal
