A Requim for Baltimore

So my asian friend (A from here on.  Not for asian, for her name that begins with an A) called yesterday after work.  She said she was considering going to DC to hang out with some friends (apparently she is from there) but wanted to know when I was leaving Baltimore.  I told her I was leaving this afternoon and she changed her plan.  She came into town and we went out to dinner.  I started drinking at dinner.  It's been a long week.  I really needed it.  We finished, walked to Little Italy in Baltimore and just hung out.  (FYI: Little Italy in Baltimore??  Yeah not so much.  It's very little and not very Italian.  But they do have the required statue of Christopher Columbus that all Italian neighborhoods have.)

We went to a bar near my hotel that was new and looked pretty cool, but was closed for painting?  The place literally opened like 2 months ago and it already needs to be painted?  WTF is that?  So we went to the bar in my hotel to regroup and figure out something else to do.  The bartender at my hotel bar was named Maurice.  Maurice was the shit.  He was one of those jovial personable bartenders who is always cracking jokes and making you feel at home.  Maurice was closing up because he "had a little something going on later" and gave us a flyer for free admission to a piano bar in the night club area of Baltimore.  We thought, what the hell, let's check it out.

Howl at the Moon was an absolute riot.  Apparently it is a franchise at sorts and they have locations all over the country.  If they ever open in Boston I will be there.  There were 2 pianos, 4 piano player/comedians who took any request and played it.  It was absolutely hilarious.  So while we were at the bar A insisted on buying me a drink since I bought dinner 2 nights in a row.  So while she was getting the drinks some guy started hitting on her.  I really could not have cared any less.  It was a refreshing feeling to be honest, to be completely indifferent toward the guy who was hitting on the girl I was with.  But she was sitting there talking to him for a few minutes, which again I had no problem with, but I wanted my damn drink!  So I walked over, grabbed it and said I'd be at the table when she got done.  She looked as if she'd been caught stealing.  (Side Note:  The dude talking to her gave me this look like "haha I'm stealing your girl."  Again, I really didn't care, so frankly it was funny.  I kind of laughed at him and walked away.  He didn't know how to react to that.  I mean, how much of a douche do you need to be to get satisfaction from trying to steal a girl from someone?  God help us.  But I digress.)

She came back to the table a few minutes later and started apologizing profusely.  I said "Listen, you don't need to apologize to me.  I will be gone tomorrow.  You absolutely should meet and talk to people here.  Seriously, I have no problem with that at all."  She grabbed, hugged and gave me one of those "You are great" kisses that you get every once in a while.  We spent the rest of the night talking, singing along and laughing at the piano players.

On the way home I got a cab.  The cabbie was like "But where you're going is like 4 blocks away."  I assured him he would be paid and tipped well.  The reason I got a cab?  Well mostly because of the sketchy crack head/homeless guys who accosted me for all of the change I had in my pockets on the way there.  And it was much later now.  We went back to the hotel and I didn't get much sleep.  It was a rough morning.  Ever notice how the hangover from a night of drinking hard alcohol is completely different than a night of beer??  Yeah, I had a hard alcohol hangover this morning.  I left her in bed and went to the office.  She said she'd stay till I got back to pack up and check out.

I came back at about 1030 to get my shit together and check out of the room.  She told me she wished I live in Baltimore, and that I wasn't leaving.  All good things to hear I guess, but I honestly could not have been happier to be getting out of there.  I went to the airport early and had lunch and a couple of beers.  Landed in Boston just in time to hit rush hour traffic, and of course my cabbie was completely inept and took the complete wrong way to get me home.  What I wanted more than anything at this point was to get home, lay in my bed and take a nap, and this moron was not only preventing from getting there, but also making it more expensive to boot.  If it weren't going to be on the company I would have been far far more angry.

Now I'm back, heading out tonight with some friends to catch a show.  It's times like this that you really appreciate the people you have as friends (i.e. when you haven't seen anyone you know in a week.)  

Random Side Note:  As we were landing in Boston I got this overwhelmingly lonely feeling.  If anyone has seen the movie Love Actually (yeah, kind of a chick flick, but really not a bad movie as far as chick flicks go) you know that in the airport everyone is seeing their significant other, family, kids etc. and hugging them and just being happy to see people.  The only person who was there for me was the cabbie from god knows where who had no idea where he was going.  I always remember time I landed in the airport after flying alone when I was met by the ex (when we were still dating).  It was quite a thing because while I was away she got a job offer in NYC that she thought she was going to take, so we had some pretty heavy phone conversations and I honestly had no idea if I'd ever see her again.  That was one of the greatest hugs of my life.  I will never forget it.  (WARNING!!! CHEESINESS OVERLOAD!!!)

Anyway, thanks for reading and posting.  I'm finally back in Boston! YES!  Hoping to make it to the get together next week.  Crossing my fingers.