Going to the D of the C.

When Angie got her job in Washington DC, we made plans almost immediately for me to come and visit her as soon as she settled into her job and new settings.

I can't reiterate how hard living in New York is. It's when you have money but if you don't it's literally a place you work your ass off in only to survive on the basic needs. She was laid off from her job in November and quickly got work at the bookstore. But she still lived in an apartment whose rent alone was $1400. So by May she had no choice but to pack up and leave.

At the time we didn't think about becoming roommates. That would have solved a lot of our problems (her rent problem and my aunt problem). We only thought of this afterwards when I began my slight apartment search before I came home. Nevertheless she has been in the DC area for about 6 weeks and I am sort of ready to see her.

The way DC works (i guess) is that it is so close to Maryland you can pretty much commute without much trouble. She lives right on the border which gives her access to the metro area and to her apartment somewhere in Maryland where young professionals live. Whatever that means. She says there are plenty of bars and coffee shops (which also sell books) that we can go to and plus we can do some touristy stuff in DC.

My first and only trip to Maryland was when I was in the 6th grade. It was a two day excursion from New York to the what we thought was the country. Because most of us had never been anywhere outside of Westchester, everything north, south, east or west of our area constituted to the country, by proxy. Early on in the year our school mandated where each floor (because for some reasons each floor (considered a 'house') held a certain number of 6th graders divided up at the beginning of the year by academic standing. It was weird) of our 3 story school would go for the end of the year trip. I say we got lucky (house 1) with Baltimore because we were the only house to have a overnight trip.

My memory of the trip is limited. I remember going to cardinals (?) game and cheering for the Yankees who weren't even playing. I remember hanging out with my bunk makes at the mall as we pretended to be adults because for 30 minutes we were left unchaperoned by the teachers at this huge mall overlooking the ocean. The mall was located on a pier and at the time this was the most amazing sight we had ever seen. I remember going to a Imax theater where we watched a movie about Everest. We then went to a slave museum that resembled a haunted house only because of the displays of people shackled and wax figures missing limbs. We headed to a hands on activity museum where I hung out with one of my many crushes back then.

At night we called random rooms looking for our friends. The teachers came to each room and wished us goodnight. The chaperons for our house were my English and math teacher. My English teacher was a British lady who liked to straighten my collar a lot, and she let me take books home from class. My math teacher was actually a substitute who took over for the math teacher who was on maternity leave. His name was Mr. Stumpo and he was 26. We all thought he was the hottest thing in the whole entire world except that he had a temper. When we weren't paying attention in class he would bang his fist against the board and give a 10 minute lecture on respect. Sometimes we could hear him (with us other class) two rooms away and Ms. Gardner (the perfect name for a British English teacher) would wait until he finished ranting to continue her lessons.

Anyway, when they came to our doors to wish us goodnight they gave his snacks from the vending machine. As the door closed I accidentally said 'bye dad'. For the rest of the year he was really nice to me and gave my butter cookies for being a good kid.

I imagine my trip to Maryland and DC will be a little different this time around. I am not twelve anymore, for one thing and there will be no malls or piers in my future. I was suppose to go on my first adult trip this Friday (sans mom), but the computer thing was stressing me out and I had no plans of booking it to DC without my computer in working condition (and plus I need to save all the money I have). Angie was a little disappointed but I figure I can see her on the weekend once I am back in the New York area. It will cost a lot less to get there from New York then where I live now.

Instead this Friday Marie had the 'brilliant' idea to get in touch with our old librarian. We were in the Media club in high school ( told you I was a nerd) and worked with her for four years. She let us eat in the library and she got us out of drivers ed. Marie and I are the only people from the media club to have not seen her since graduation which is sort of bad because we were the closest to her.

Last week Marie and I got in contact with her, and agreed to have brunch with her sometime in the future. We are feeling a little apprehensive about this because when we knew her we were angry antsy awkward teenagers and now we are just awkward adults. We both talked to her on the phone a week ago and we didn't know what to say to her. Marie kept telling her about my life and I kept telling her about Marie's life. Together we are hoping that we will make one cohesive put together adult because separately we both failed in that department.

Anyway, I should get some writing done. I have sort of a block that has nothing to do with lack of ideas but anxiety over whether my words matter. Damn.