growing up

navigating by stars, like sailors

miracle fortress: next train

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over the weekend, i traveled to baltimore for a couple of reasons.

first, and foremost, my friend mary was getting married!

second, there’s a few rice kids tucked away in “the greatest city on earth” (no seriously, that’s what it says on the park benches) that i wanted to see.

third, i’ve been missing my days of admissions travel, where i’d hop into a rental car and drive through places i’d never seen before while clutching my map and listening to mix cds. i navigated cities like they were old friends; effortlessly, it seems, i discovered cramped coffeeshops and funky stores and made friends with bartenders, waiters, record store clerks and even a random guy i met in madison who ended up driving me around the city and taking me to this german bar with boot-shaped glasses and bikers.

i look back on myself and wonder if i was really that confident and eager or if i was just pretending until it felt natural. as usual, i don’t remember where that line of distinction fell (although this blog is living proof that i did seek out my fair share of adventures). did i take more risks than i do now? did i live directly facing, even challenging, the world?

baltimore was one of the last cities i visited for a recruitment trip, so i decided it might be the perfect place for a bit of soul searching amidst the wedding festivities. eh, maybe soul searching is too strong of a phrase. more like… a bit of quiet thinking.

baltimore sort of lends itself to that type of activity– the harbor gives you the space you need to breathe, but the city doesn’t hide from its ugliness. it can’t, because there’s so much of it. in that respect, i believe baltimore knows what it’s like to be human; therefore, it won’t judge you. and even if you try to distract yrself from the darkness of the city, or the darkness inside yr own self, you won’t be able to. there’s not a lot of fanciness or hooplah or clever mottos to avert yr eyes from the regular, sometimes desperate lives people are living.

in fact, the only fancy thing i saw were the black ladies pouring out of church on a sunday afternoon with their sequined hats and crayola-colored dresses. i’ll take that form of posh over red carpets any day.

i spent much of the weekend at fell’s point, which is open and inviting but not the least bit overwhelming.

the first night, i planned to stay with mary (and our friend erin) at a nice hotel called henderson’s wharf. there’s something so clean about places by the sea, don’t you think?

and now we get to the part where i start seeing my old rice friends and talking about our zig zaggity paths.

ben met up with me at the hotel so we could indulge in a little pub crawl.

i took this picture at the first bar, which we ducked into because the sign said, “saloon.” wouldn’t you rather hang out at a saloon then a plain old bar? the answer is BIG DUH.

this “saloon” had flags on the ceiling, lots of nautical framed prints and green fliers advertising “twisted tea: $2.00.” the catchy name, not to mention the neon green paper, prompted me to ask our waitress what exactly twisted tea is. she replied, “it comes in a bottle.”

so, we got corona.

to be honest, i wasn’t really friends with ben back in college. he was two years younger than me, and upon setting foot in the acabowl, was immediately adopted by members of the five man (to make a long description short, home of the keg). ben always struck me as a nice guy, though, especially when he and my power suite roomie, sofia, unexpectedly became friends and traded books. i can’t even tell you the moment when we became “friends” in my mind, but it might have been while ben lived in japan and wrote one of my favorite blogs of all time.

ben is a Writer.

ben writes every single day. he’s finishing what will probably be a 400 page novel. ben isn’t chasing after his dream– he’s holding hands with it.

we spent a few hours nursing beers and getting our Rice on, talking about people, places, memories, all without having to worry that we were boring someone or sounding too dorkalicious (i consider this one of life’s greatest luxuries). even though we spoke the same language, we were coming from different cultures of that experience, so it felt sort of like looking through one of those quarter operated telescopes, then stepping down and moving to the next one, where the landscape is the same and yet you zoom in on different details.

i noticed lots of little changes in ben, tiny deviations that allowed him to be the same and yet different, and i wondered what he noticed about me.

at some point, we moved on to another pub, which featured excellent wallpaper.

after only a few hours in baltimore, i realized something about myself.

are you ready for this?

i am a total nautical pants! and i don’t mean i can, like, steer a ship or hoist up the john b’s sail or whatever. what i *mean* is that i love pictures of ships and oceans and putting anchors on stuff! my new clothing mission is to find a kickass sailor dress and hopefully a nautical charm bracelet to go with it. oh, and if you happen to see an old painting of a shipwreck or a sea storm at yr local garage sale, pick it up for me. i am totally good for the two dollars it will cost you, i swear.

fell’s point is all OVER the nautical shizz. the final stop on the Sarah & Ben Pub Crawl was the admiral’s cup, where there were lots of rice kids waiting for us. here’s a picture of it during the day:

it’s narrow, it’s full of neon, and it’s by the water. what more do you need? well, besides a sailor dress, obvs.

once inside, i found mary, the bride to be, and gave her a killer hug. because I AM SO EXCITED AND OMG YOU’RE GETTING MARRIED AND I CAN’T BELIEVE IT AND I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU!

mary looks great. she *emanates* happiness. i mean, just look at her and her john:

i swear, they’re already like an old couple, but in that good, “when harry met sally,” “i rode up nine extra floors just to keep talking to her” sort of way. watching them laugh and joke with each other made me really happy, cos as mary’s college friend and houston roommate, i’ve seen her date more than her fair share of jerkfaces.

john is not a jerkface. and thus, i am glad.

i also go to see liz and her husband, brian. here’s me and liz, looking perfectly natural.

many of you may recall that brian was the editor-in-chief of the rice thresher when mark and i were writing the backpage. you may also recall that we shared our BP duties with non other than ben, the baltimore Writer. and you may ALSO recall that brian fired ben in a hailstorm of controversy, leaving mark and me to write a last minute substitute, otherwise known as The Backpage In 30 Minutes or Less (complete with totally edgy art, courtesy of yrs truly).

maybe you don’t remember, but ben sure does. and we wondered, as we entered the admiral’s cup, if brian did too. cos if so… grab yr tobaccy and mosey on over to the SHOWDOWN!

fortunately for everyone involved except the few people who would enjoy watching two rice nerds pummel each other, brian didn’t remember ben at all. HOW CAN THIS BE, you ask? ben was brian’s arch nemesis, and vice versa. even after a few years, you don’t just FORGET the cackling villain in yr own personal storyline!

well, i guess time heals all wounds.

and by time, i mean beer. copious, copious amounts of beer.

the crisis averted, we all settled into playing catch-up and inspecting each other for those little tiny changes.

eventually, mary decided she needed to retire to her bridal chamber, so we headed back to the hotel for a little slumber party. on the eve of such a major commitment, such a pivotal life change, such a huge Step Into Adulthood, it’s important to remember that deep down, we’re all still twelve years old.

erin, recognizing the importance of this night, made a mix cd to play for mary during the last hours of her singledom. as a maker of mixes myself, i found that to be a v. touching effort.

unfortunately, the room did not have a cd player. erin even checked the TV channel listings, just to make sure she couldn’t, say, magically insert the cd into a hidden slot on the TV and make it work.

no matter. mary was already riding high above the clouds, even though her feet were firmly planted on the ground, where they’ve always been.

after a night of observing so many slight changes in people and deeming them necessary and natural and even beneficial, i still felt reassured by her wonderful sameness.

more, tomorrow.

LINKS

can you think of anything BETTER than a mustache contest?!!!!! no, you can’t. p.s. henri, don’t get any ideas.

ahh, the differences between men and women.

i’m a huge fan of hello kitty. and yet, AND YET, getting married while followed closely by two life-size hello kitty people is just really not, uh, on my to-do list.

© 2007 Poshdeluxe.