Lovin’ an Elevator
May 11, 2005
Life in Baltimore has been different. To say that it has been good or bad might be saying too much one way or another. So since I hardly ever write anything of substance any more, let’s not break that trend. Here’s a simple list of my life’s events over the past week or so.
Good! My job is outstanding. I am, for the first time, experiencing the phenomenon of working in a place where I like my coworkers. I even like my boss. I actually like my job. And I’m not just saying that because they know about my blog. Not that Shaun’s ego needs to get any bigger (just kiddin’, Inman!) This is to say that I am not about to start blogging about work. Thank you for the life lesson learned, Dooce.
Bad! I got stuck in an elevator on Monday morning. It wasn’t for very long, and it wasn’t even very scary. I realized that my lifelong fear of elevators was actually rooted in my fear of one falling, not just being stuck in one. I was only in there for 10–15 minutes, and the maintenance staff of my building were most helpful and quite apologetic after extracting me from the steel coffin. I will sue the bastards anyway.
Good! I managed to find the people I hung out with on my first night in town. And by “managed to find,” I mean “one of them randomly drove past me, then stopped and yelled at me, while they were in the parking lot of my office building.” A few days later, I ran into him again at my neighborhood bar. Shades of Jessica, Giovanni’s stalker ability is uncanny. Plus, him finding me in the parking lot make me look really cool in front of my co-worker, Clint.
Bad! Someone in my apartment building has it out for me. He/she will get his/hers.
Good! I am making friends in DC. I want to do this, because I want to have a reason to go to DC more often. I may even attempt to drive there. I have driven past, beyond, and around DC, but I have not yet had the courage to drive through.
Bad! Transportation as a genre is continuing to fail me. The Jet has broken down for a second time (second time this month, that is). Fortunately I have not given trains, airplanes, or watercraft the opportunity to disappoint me.
Good! I finally remembered Jonathan’s last name. I couldn’t remember it for over a week. It was one of those times when once you’ve overthought something, when you attempt to forget about it, in hopes that it will “come to you” later, the only thing that continued to “come to me” was the memory of overthinking it. Even better, I was finally able to find his phone number once I remembered his name. Jonathan, you had better call me back now.
Bad! My birthday is coming up, and I will be too poor to celebrate. Not such a big deal, as my birthday celebration levels have been dropping off in the past few years. Ever since leaving Tybee, anyway. Maybe someone special will come visit me. And by that, I mean to say Camp, get the fuck over here now.
Good! I met a few cool folks last week that I gotta say I found very interesting. My faith in the people of Maryland continues to improve.
Bad! Electricity here is expensive.
Good! I am happy more often than I am not. Despite the hardships inherent in packing up your life and shipping it a thousand miles from home, I’m as good as I ever could have hoped for.
Electricity might be expensive, but you what’s cheap? Water. I used to pay almost $30/month for it in Louisiana and half the time it was brown and unusable (or non potable as we used to say in the army). Here in Baltimore I pay about $20 every THREE months and it doesn’t even crunch when I brush my teeth.
Well hot damn. No wonder my apartment buildng graciously offered to pay for my water.
You’re spot on about the quality, though. I never imagined that water in downtown Baltimore would be cleaner than it was in suburban Savannah. I drink this straight out of the tap regularly, though, and I haven’t begun to suffer any serious medical conditions yet.