2002-01-15
Volleyball and a beautiful car, posted at 6:50 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Yesterday evening was a good time. After a typically boring department meeting after school (actually, they gave us time to work in our horizontal grade teams, so it wasn't that bad), I had an unusually productive evening.First, I went up and signed up to play volleyball in the city's "Sports and Social League." I did so alone. Jason is broke, and I can't get him to do anything ever. Kevin still hasn't been hired in the district. Mike had basketball with his church group last night. So I signed up alone. I hope to convince Josh and Mike to do so tonight, so I'm not totally alone, but I'm prepared even if I am.
It seems like a really cool thing. The group plays six sports throughout the year - volleyball, softball, kickball (!), broomball, soccer, and football. Each sport costs $45 per person for a 6-10 week season, including equipment, t-shirts, the courts, and referees. It's all co-ed, and the league names are "Social" (for moderately good) and "Extreme Social" (no sports skills, you're just in it to socialize). You can join as a team or as an individual, and individuals will be doled out to teams that need more players. The basic gist of it, according to the website, is that everyone plays the sports and then goes out together. There are a lot of specials associated with being a member, like dollar drafts or all-you-can-drink nights at bars. The age group looked to be the twenties while I was signing up.
So I'm pretty proud of myself. Signing up was definitely a step out of my comfort zone, and hopefully will help me meet some people so I'm not stuck home watching E!'s True Hollywood Stories on Saturday nights.
I'm still so desperate for friends here. Everyone is really nice to me here at school, but it's telling that the the closest friends I've met here are older and married and rarely interact with me outside of work. It sounds so dumb, but I'm still trying to befriend this guy down in the math department. I asked him for a ride home on Friday, and he gladly obliged, and even invited me out to Rocky Run (a cool bar that we spent a lot of time with over the holidays, and caters to a mixture of Johns Hopkins students, graduate students, baby boomers, and Teach America folks) with some friends of his. However, he called his friend on the way who he was meeting, and he was sick, and the trip was cancelled. I tried to hide my disappointment, but I was disappointed. I spent most of our conversation impressing upon him that I need to get to know the city better, that I'd like to go to some cool bars, that I'm always looking for something to do. He's a very nice guy with definite friendship potential. But so far, nothing. I'd love to have some friends here at school that I do more than just socialize at school with. I'm also starting to get really sick of being at home, spending all my time with Jason, who is becoming increasingly content with just sitting around and watching TV.
That being said, I'm really enjoying the presence of our temporary fourth roommate, Kevin (note: I think I called him his actual name before, but I'm going to try and start using aliases in here more often.) He's interviewing for a kindergarten teaching job today, and I hope he gets it. I was unsure about him at first, but I do really like him. He took me to the volleyball signup last night; he didn't sign up himself because he's still without a job. But I think he will. He's a really nice guy, and I think his niceness is very genuine. Last night, the two of us went and ran a few errands, and he saw that I was looking intently at all the used car dealerships that we were passing and offered to stop and look at some with me. I was really curious to see what a Pontiac Grand Am looked like in person, as I had only seen one in pictures (my dad's used car dealer friend in Michigan has a great deal for me on a teal 1999 Grand Am that I'm thinking about going for... I've even checked out plane ticket prices for this weekend and am still strongly considering it). Anyhow, we stopped at a place called Koons Used Cars and I asked to look at a Grand Am. The dealer - one of the nicest men I've ever met, and, yes, I know he was trying to make a sale so I'm taking it with a small grain of salt - showed me one.
This car was mesmorizing. It was a 2000 royal blue grand am with just 17,000 miles. It was beautiful. Sporty yet sensible. 4-door, but not a family car. Sleek yet roomy. I mean, it was awesome. The color was striking. I talked with him about the car in Michigan, and he said, "I'm not going to lie to you, that is a great deal." But gosh I love this car. It would probably run me $13K or more, but I think I could afford it. I still have not heard back from the credit union loan people, so things are a little bit up in the air still. But it might be more simple to buy the car here and get the tags, insurance, registration, title, and everything else here in the state and save myself a flight home, a 10-hour drive back, and worrying about things like what to do with Holden. Besides, I have rarely had this sort of emotional response to a car. It was gorgeous, and I could totally see me in it. I had dreams all night of me buying it and signing the papers with that nice salesman.
We will see what happens.
There is an inch of water in the basement right now, and some of my books are ruined because of it. Hopefully the landlord will get the plumber there ASAP today to get it fixed.