Friday, Jan. 03, 2003
Finally back in town, posted at 10:10 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Still no computer, and after getting home at 1am on Thursday morning and teaching on just three hours of sleep on Thursday, I haven't had much time since I've been back in town to run over to the library. When I logged into my hotmail account just now for the first time in days, my mailbox was 100% full and I was not getting all my messages.The trip home sucked. I am so tired of the Baltimore-Michigan drive. I think part of the issue is that while I was in my home state, I didn't relax at all, instead traveling all over the place and rarely getting any time to stay in one place and just soak it all in. I am fairly positive that next year I will not be able to do New Year's in Michigan, as this return to school has been brutal and unhealthy. I cannot believe that our school system required that we return on January 2nd for a two-day week. It all depends on how the schedule works out next year, though.
New Year's was okay. I enjoyed the party at Eleanor's before the going out phase much more than the actual going out. Eleanor does a good job of throwing a party, and I enjoyed being able to sit and chat with people I need to catch up with. I just got really tired at the bar after arriving, probably as a result of my far too intense travel schedule. Annoyingly, we didn't get a table at Rum Runner's and had to stand around. The piano players weren't as good as I remember them, either. Or maybe I was distracted and tired. But I remember looking at my watch at eleven and really wanting the midnight hour to come around. I was also sober by the time midnight rolled around, which actually wasn't a bad thing - I was buzzing really good for a while, then tapered off, which is probably the optimal way to enjoy drinking.
I was buzzing so much on the ride over on Big Daddy Taxi that I called about fifteen of my Baltimore friends - a phenomenon that Boston Betty (one of my victims) refers to as D&D (Drinking and Dialing). I only got through to a few folks, but I'm sure everyone who got a message or an out-of-the-blue phone call was sufficiently amused. I called everyone from Teri, who I see often in Baltimore and later called me at midnight to brag that she was celebrating the New Year's before I was because she thought there was a time change but there actually isn't, to Santiago, who was a fellow RA in college and I hadn't spoken to in well over a year, to Kristin, who I hadn't talked to since she had a house concert at my place in May and later quit the music business. Fun stuff.
Overall, I'm guardedly happy about what happened over the vacation. There's a lot I need to digest, and I believe vice versa. There are still a lot of emotions swirling around in my brain, from joy to guilt to uncertainty, but regret isn't one of them, and this is a good thing.
The intense testing schedule of January is making me rush through Their Eyes Were Watching God and it's pissing me off. Otherwise, not much else is new. I haven't seen any friends since I returned to town yet, and look forward to heading out this afternoon with a few of them.
I can't believe it's Jan. 3 and I haven't written about my New Year's Resolutions yet! Damn! I have to look at last year's before I can... I'm a big Resolution person, though.