2003-03-10 - 6:54 p.m.
We're finally back home. There's something about being away from home that causes time to stop in a weird sort of way. Returning home means taking a deep breath and Returning. To life. In a weird way. The bills have piled up, the cats and dog need extra attention. There's an additional layer of dust on everything and now. Now there's absolutely no clean underwear. The weight of life needs to be attended to on a daily basis and when you leave it, even for just a long weekend, it piles up.
We had a lovely time. An incredible time. We have a little arrangement with our Baltimore friends, to spend all of our birthdays together. These guys are literally like family to us. We've had good times and bad and we love them madly.
I was anxious taking the train down and I was anxious taking it back. I'm not sure why. The schedules made me nervous. All those people. Having to find seats, lug luggage, all those stops. I'm not sure if now if I'd rather train 7 hours or drive 8 hours from Boston to Baltimore. It seems a pretty even match to me at this point.
We had a really beautiful time in Baltimore. We went out into the Maryland countryside and listened to just incredible live bluegrass. Those guys were awesome and the beer couldn't have been cheaper. Three pitchers for $20. That's like free.
Saturday we lounged around and then went into DC for my friend Kim's birthday dinner. There had been a women's protest that day... Ms. Mobtown's birthday always coincides with International Women's History Day... and it was warm. So warm in D.C. on Saturday. We walked around Adams Morgan with our coats off and saw thousands of women carrying NOW balloons and wearing pink. It was a lovely site. We poked around used record shops and the queer bookstore. Where I attempted again to come up with a book title to rival Michelle Tea's... my arch-nemisis (sp?)
We went to dinner at a place called Mamma Gaia's. I think that was the name of it. It was a Pakistani place and the food was just incredible. We ate a ton. Ms. Mobtown had invited 14 of her nearest and dearest... and really fun mix of people.
Oddly enough, it was the Republican Gulf War veteran who now does stuff for our Homeland Security... and his witty as hell Italian wife who we hit it off so well that we exchanged email information and made half-plans to visit them and have them visit Boston. They're really just incredible people. We bonded over the fact that not only are they from Brooklyn... but they MET on my old bus along Kings Highway. He won me over by telling me that he got kicked out of a key meeting the other day because he yelled at them for racial profiling airline passengers. He won me over further by declaring that he had great respect for the fact that I had done all I did in New York City.
I'm a sucker for compliments.
His wife was just great as anything. She's so old-school Italian. Really beautiful and put-together... and *so* take-charge and witty which I love. We talked to them all night.
Yesterday we went to a restuarant in Baltimore and had 2 doz. large crabs covered in Old Bay. I've never had crabs before... But The Girl and Ms. Mobtown who both grew up with regular crab fests gave me some pointers and declared me a pro at the end of the night.
And. Today we got up incredibly earlier... and took the train home. Returned to life.
I'm attempting to get used to it again.
And to pay the bills.
