2002-01-28
Social weekend, posted at 3:08 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com It's official. I think I made my first friend in the city.Of course, I'm exaggerating a bit. I've developed very pleasant, friend-like relationships with co-workers. I eat lunch with two women who are really great. I've been out to bars with co-workers. I've been to their houses, been to their parties, and ridden in their cars.
But I had another milestone this past weekend. On Sunday, a friend came to my house for the first time. Nick. He came over and watched the game with us. It was a great time. It was the first time I've entertained a new friend at the house, which I thought was pretty significant.
I'm excited. We watched the football games, drank beer, ate pizza, and just had a really good time. That was on top of going out with Nick and Teri to a wine party on Saturday night.
I think it's extremely healthy for me to be getting out there more, spending time with different people, and making new friends. I so miss having a lot of friends. So far in Baltimore, I've been feeling like I'm back at high school, with few friends and no one close to me. I've often been lonely. Living with Jeremy, who is one of my best friends, has been trying at times, especially in the last two weeks or so. (He's got an interview tomorrow, I'm hoping he'll get that job and he'll stop taking his jobless stress out on me... but that's a different story.) I've made friends with Josh, but he's got enough bad habits to annoy me a bit. He's a perfect personification for me of the huge age cap between 21 and 23/24/25 - he just seems quite immature at times to me. That's why I'm glad I'm getting to know Nick pretty well. I'm really impressed by him, and I think we have a lot in common. We've already made plans to head out to the bar for Happy Hour after work today.
Speaking of which, that will be four days in a row drinking. But I haven't been drunk once, so I guess that's good - practicing moderation and all that jazz. I had two drinks on Friday night, when Jeremy, Josh, and I went out to a couple of bars we have never been before (Brewer's Art and 13th Floor - both really cool, for entirely different reasons). That night, we ended up meeting a couple of girls, and they were fun. One of them was flirting a lot with me, but I wasn't that interested; Jeremy ended up making out with the other one in a state of drunkenness later that night. I was the DD, so I only had two beers the entire night. We ended up back at their place, which was awesome ($2200 in rent, four stories, great deck and beautiful view). Anyhow, they both seemed young to me (they were only a couple of years younger, but neither of them have a real job, so it feels like they're in a different part of their lives), but they could be fun to hang out again with in the future.
On Saturday, I ditched Jeremy and Josh for Nick and Teri, and went to this wine party thing. It was just okay, as my knowledge of wine consists pretty much only how to tell the difference between red and white... Also, the crowd was fairly old. But it did give Nick and I a chance to bond quite a bit (we both felt slightly uncomfortable, not knowing anyone), and Teri is a lot of fun (she reminds me of my ex, Jenni, before our relationship and friendship got all weird). It was a fun night. I was DD again (I'm not sure how I got stuck with that two nights in a row, but it was fine, as I'm still in showing-off-the-new-car mode), and I didn't get back until 1:30am. Jeremy and Josh had a great time as well, without me, and I think that's great. Perhaps some of the recent strain on my relationship with Jeremy is our endless hours together. I think it's good that we, um, see other people.
As aforementioned, Sunday was great. I just had a great time. Nick got along well with my two roommates (Mike is gone all the time now, so I now refer to quasi-temporary roommate Josh as my official roommate), the games were great, the beer tasted good, and, well, it was just a great day.
Hell, it was a great weekend. I feel so social. I feel like I'm finally making an impact on people's lives here, and I'm letting them do the same. I think earlier this year, as I was lamenting on here about my lack of friends, that I said something like, "If I moved, no one would remember me." I now know, categorically, that this would not be the case. And it's a good feeling.
Grades are due at 10am tomorrow, and I'm nearly finished tallying them up. Today was a long, boring, and fairly useless inservice day with sessions at the other edge of the city, but tomorrow we're spending almost all our time in our classroom, doing what we need to do to get ready for the new kids and the new semester on Wednesday. I'm ecstatic about it, although I'm glad it's still thirty-six hours away.
It's a beautiful day today. Adios.