oodles of fun

Robert and I are currently in the Baltimore area for both pleasure and business.  When one of Robert’s clients asked for assistance in the Baltimore area we jumped on it.  This has been our longest trip since I started working full-time at the library over two years ago and my first visit to the northeast, and we are having oodles of fun.  

We have been exploring both Baltimore and Washington, D.C. with many stops in smaller towns here and there.  When Robert works I have been keeping myself busy with my embroidery and various public library lurking.  While we haven’t been taking very many pictures we do have a few that I will post once I get home.  We have seen the changing of the guards at Arlington, pressed our faces against the heavily-tinted windows of Charm City Cakes, eaten the best bagel of our lives at Bagels Etc., explored at least five public libraries and just as many bookstores.  We walked the block around the White House, enjoyed a couple rides through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, saw some incredible graffiti, including a hand filled with houses in the middle of the Baltimore slums, slogged through our first encounter with a library that uses the Library of Congress classification (good practice for Library of Congress), and had amazing salads at Chop’t.  I also discovered that the subway is a charming place to hang out if you’re a writer or artist.  It is ideal for people-watching and is worth every second of the crowds, fart smells and nausea.  Once I discovered the four different kinds of subway riding I simply prepared myself for the worst so that I could revel in the rare delight of an empty seat.

What are the four different kinds of subway riding you ask?  The first involves sitting in one of the seats next to a complete stranger who is mumbling incoherently.  This is a treat!  The second kind of subway riding happens when there are no free seats but you get to hang on to one of the lovely bars they provide, and if you are defining lovely bars as bars that have never seen a disinfectant wipe, you are absolutely dead on – way to go!  The third kind of subway riding happens when all of the bars are taken and you wobble around with nothing to hold onto.  This is when you engage in  some incoherent mumbling of your own.  This is an excellent way to dispel some of that psychosis that we all have bumping around in the ol’ noggin.  Lastly, the fourth kind of subway riding is when there aren’t any seats or bars but it no longer matters because there are so many people that only your eyes move when the subway lurches.  This is just as terrible as it sounds, but if you’ve been curious how a weave is attached but do not have the guts to get that close to someone who has a weave, this is the perfect opportunity to do so.  

I know it sounds like we are missing some important places in the D.C. area, and you are right!  We still have a few more days of exploring. Pictures soon!