Summer in the City

The last week has been a whirlwind of new places, new people, and heat!

On Wednesday I went into DC to visit a friend. She couldn’t take the day off, but she arranged it so that I could get into her apartment earlier in the day, leave my car there, then Metro to the sights. I went to DC once when I was in 7th grade but hadn’t been back since. While I know not much of the city changed (by way of monuments, museums and sights), I have changed. And I am more into photography now. So I wanted to do “The Mall” again. RB, my DC friend, was so great and organized. She left me maps, a metro pass, detailed instructions on where to go and what to do. I didn't have to think at all, and I loved every minute of it. This is what greeted me when I entered her apartment. It was so detailed and thorough, I had to take a picture of it.






The day went well and everything went smoothly. I walked around the monuments for about 3 hours. Then it was too hot to do more. I found a Starbucks near the White House and cooled off for a bit with some iced coffee. After that, I met RB here for happy hour and dinner at the Sky Terrace. During the summer months they open the rooftop patio. There are stunning views of the city, the monuments and the White House. I think you can actually see the Oval Office too. The view looks like this:












Seeing everything in DC this time ended up being really different from before. Everything meant more. Maybe because I know/appreciate more about our history.

Thursday night was the happy hour I organized for the people in my program (via the accepted student online forum). I don’t know much about the “cool” bars in B’more, so I just picked this Irish Pub right on the water in the inner harbor. The bar was fun, there was a good turnout, and I really liked some of the girls right away. In fact, we made plans to get together again the next night.

This is the inner harbor, by the way.










Which brings me to Friday. On Friday I finished painting these for my bedroom:

I did do the painting freehand, but it wasn’t hard at all since it is a pretty simple design. And it was even less hard because I didn’t come up with the concept. I was "inspired" by this artist, courtesy of KA. Painting was fun--it was great to have a creative outlet--but I used a color that ended up being slightly too green. Which meant another trip to the store and another coat of paint. Of course that presented new challenges: Will the new color be right once it’s dry? Will the new color, even if it is right, look right on top of the old color?? In trying to cover the old green color and keep the edges smooth and sharp, I ended up taking more width away from everything. So it’s all kind of wrong. But in the end, I still kind of like them.

Later on Friday I met up with about 6 girls for a night of partying in Fell’s Point, a cobblestone-street, water-front neighborhood full of bars. We did a good job of hitting up lots of different places. Unfortunately, most of the girls were a year or two younger then me. They liked doing sweet shots. Lots of them. Of all different kinds of alcohol. And because it was my first night really out on the town I joined in. That was a good idea until the next morning. I wasn’t really hung over…but I wasn’t really right either. And if I didn’t have any plans I easily could have wasted the day away sitting on the couch. Instead, I rallied, as there were things to do and places to go! And…more beer to drink (woe was me).

RB came up on Saturday to visit this lovely little metropolis. She has never really seen it so we planned a couple of days full of B’more fun. We met up with some of my new friends at Brew in the Zoo, a fundraising, beer and wine tasting event at the Maryland Zoo. We thought it sounded fun...and so did everyone else. It took 1 hour and 45 min to get a parking spot and tickets. Right as we were buying our tickets, after we had been in line for an hour, they put out “Sold Out” signs. People in the line behind us were not happy. Inside the events were more long lines, but at least there was free stuff at the end of them. And at least there was shade and grass to sit under and on. I had been dying in line from the heat, and I was still a little not right from my partial hangover. Getting to sit down in the shade and eat a cheeseburger was the highlight of my afternoon.

Later that night we grabbed a fabulous seafood dinner on the inner harbor, then met up with a group of RB’s friends, and then with some people we met at Brew in the Zoo. It was tough being out again, but I connected with the Irish in me and pulled through. It helped that I drank much less and was home much earlier.

Today, RB and I went to the farmers market where I did most of my produce shopping for the week. Then we grabbed brunch at a great little place near moi. When RB left I decided it was time to hit up the pool! It was fun. Hot, but fun. I only lasted a couple of hours.

For the rest of the day, I am going to sit inside, in the air conditioning, on my couch. No new people, no alcohol, no fatty food, no talking (my voice is a little raspy from the two nights out).

Today is for resting because there is more summer to come. The summer calendar issue of the local city paper just came out. It has pages and pages of events, festivals, movies-in-the-park, etc. I was really overwhelmed. Next weekend is a Polish Festival. Later in the month there is a gay pride parade. There are art fairs to stroll through and rivers to inner tube down. Apparently there's a great Jamaican shindig hitting up a near-by park later in the summer. Tomorrow Hopkins plays Duke in the Lacrosse Finals. I might get talked into going to any and all of these things. But I won’t make any decisions about any of all that until later.