I live in Baltimore and am taking part in the Zipcar "Low Car Diet", which means I am supposed to rely on alternative forms of transportation (bike, bus, walk, zipcar), basically anything that is not my own car, for one month. Here goes!
This morning I walked from Joe's house to the bus and since I have to get up so damn early, I saw the sun rise. Pretty nice, except for the fact that I am awake.
Took the number 64 to the office and after work I met up with Stephanie and we rode in her car back to our neighborhood and got our nails done at LUX on 33rd. It was... amazing. Luxurious. Relaxing. $35.
Then we went home. My nails are already chipping (WTF?).
Sara and I zipped it like no other today. After walking to the Farmers' Market and then home, I picked up my reserved zipcar from the Johns Hopkins area. It was a Toyota Prius and it was cool. We headed out to Catoctin Mountain Park, near Thurmont, Maryland.
What happened today?... Oh yeah, I drove my beautiful zipcar back to it's spot in the morning and walked to work. After work I went out to Happy Hour with my friends from work and got some dank ass Bloody Marys and sweet potato fries at The Rowhouse. Then Lauren gave me a ride home and I hell of slept.
Today was a day of traveling to the extreme. I rode my bike to work, then after work biked over to Tutti Gusti's in Canton for a Pizza Club meeting.
Then, I biked back downtown to pick up the zipcar I reserved. This was my first time, so I felt kind of weird and confused... also I was in a rush and these suburban teens were grilling me about city parking regulations because they "hate driving in Baltimore" it's a real big city, you know. BUT everything worked out, I stuck my bike in the back and took off towards the suburbs for this babysitting gig. The car was amazing. I zipped a Volvo S40 and it was a dream. Oh man, so luxurious, so quiet, so many lit up functions and buttons. I felt wealthy for a short while, and you know what? It felt good. After babysitting (and by "babysitting" I mean knitting while watching The Stepford Wives and that one episode of the X-Files where hyper intelligent metal cockroaches from outer space are killing people) I heading back into the city and picked up Joe. We then zipped to Valentinos, ate up my babysitting money and then went home. What a day! Thanks ZIPCAR!
This morning I got a ride from Stephanie to work, which totally rules because we work really close to each other but usually do not carpool because our hours are different. With her assistance, I actually got to work on time for a change. Hello!
It was a beautiful day.
To get home that evening, I decided to take the FREE Charm City Circulator to Penn Station and then hop on the Hopkins shuttle to get home (or at least closer to my house). As I was walking to the Circulator stop, Lauren drove by and asked if I wanted a ride. I got in her car, where three other co-workers were carpooling and we drove to Mt. Vernon.
I then walked towards Penn Station and came upon these gems:
Temping...
Anyway, after taking the Hopkins shuttle and walking home from the stop I got on my bike and headed to Rocket to Venus to celebrate Moira's 26th birthday. Stephanie and Rufus left our house in a car at the same time as I did on a bike and guess what... we got there at the same time, actually they walked in a couple minutes after me because they had to find parking. You know where I park? Wherever the hell I want to, that's where.
I had to head out after 10 mins because Aran and I were playing a show that night so I booked it from Rocket to the Annex in record time taking Falls Road. It was very dark and creepy but a real nice ride.. I really should get lights of some kind because I am basically invisible at night on my bike. The show was really awesome Showbeast did a live puppet set and showed a video and Alexis Gideon performed this epic live/animated story that you can learn more about here. It was a fun night. After the show, I walked over to Joe's.
Dolly Freed and her dad lived off the grid for a long time in the 70's and she wrote a book about it called Possum Living. They have it at the library.
It's a great book and I'm finally watching the mini-documentary, which is also cool.
Today I decided to take the bus to work but unfortunately couldn't force myself out of bed early enough to catch the correct one. Instead of getting the 64 which would bring me right to work in a timely manner, I groggily stepped onto the 61, which only brings you to the Inner Harbor. So it's like 8:07am and I need to be at work at 8am and it takes like 25-30 minutes to walk from the Inner Harbor to my office. So..... what do I do? Walk. Luckily my friend/co-worker Lauren happened to drive by as I trekked down the trail of tears and picked me up. I was very lucky, although I still got to work hell of late, it could have been worse. After work, another friend/co-worker, Becca, and I went back to my place and then to Joann's for costume making supplies (I'm making hers). Then she dropped me off at home.
Oh, today I also reserved a zipcar for Saturday. Sara and I are planning a "day trip" in a "hybrid" for "free". Details will be forth coming.
Drove to work. It is Monday, afterall. Anyway, after DRIVING home I gathered up my knitting and walked to the Johns Hopkins shuttle stop and took the shuttle to Penn Station. I then went to Janell's house and did crafts while watching cable. After wards, I walked to Joe's.
Walked to the Farmer's Market, per usual. Met up with Gabry and Elizabeth, saw two separate women with little fluffy dogs in their tote bags and heard there was a bird on someone's back around as well. Went to the Book Thing, per usual. Walked home. Biked to the crepe shop to bring Joe food (another double) and Sara some ice cream broaches and cookies. Biked to Moira's and five of us drove to Frederick, MD to go to the National Museum of Civil War Medicine for Moira's birthday. It was cool!
This guy was my favorite.
So discreet.
On the way back to Baltimore, Daniel, who was driving, got pulled over for going 60mph in a 40mph zone. But get this, while the officer was looking through Daniel's paperwork or whatever he suddenly got a more urgent call and took off. We were a little confused at first, but then realized that what just happened totally ruled. Happy Birthday indeed.
Biked to work then to the post office to send Christiana a birthday gift (skeleton gloves) and my mom a magnet. While there, this guy asked me if he could have my bike, I guess my response wasn't to his liking, because he seemed very hurt by my refusal. After the PO, I headed to Greenmount to get some supplies for my Halloween costume. The stores were all closing and Gabry called to hang out, so I headed to her house in Hampden. We then walked to Grano and ate some delicious pasta while the cars, dogs and pregnant teens noisily shuffled by. On the way back to her house we observed a tailless kitten that looked like a rabbit and a man with a spelunking light on his head running around. We never figured out what was going on with either of these creatures. I biked home.
So I did reserve a zipcar for this evening, but canceled it. So close to actually being successful! So close. You see, we were going to go to Bengie's Drive-In to watch E.T. and North By Northwest tonight, but it got rained out. Guess what I did instead? That's right, drove to work. Oh yeah. It was actually kind of worth the shame today because it was raining like CRAZY. However, with better planning and more gusto, I could have definitely avoided driving my car today.
I biked to work today. My normal route relies mostly on Guilford Avenue to work (south) and Fairmount/Guilford from work (north). Right where Guilford meets North there is this crossing guard who always urges bikers to cross when the red hand is up. Usually, I disregard traffic lights anyway and let the flow of traffic designate my speed and crossing tactics. Anyway, he's always like "Come on!! Cross the street! Come on, now!!" and I'm like "Chill dude, just let me do my thing and not get hit". I guess my point is (if there is one) is that it's kind of weird that a crossing guard demands/promotes dangerous street crossing practices. Whatever.
ANYWAY, today at that very corner, an elderly woman almost passed out in front of me. She was walking with another woman and suddenly started clinging to this tree and looking really dazed. Both the crossing guard and I were like "Oh my!" but as he approached to help, I biked away. I'm sure she's fine.
After work I met up with Joe and Josh and we ate frozen pizza (hell of burned my mouth) and watched about 3 episodes of the Simpsons, season 4. I then biked home.
Rainy Days! I took the bus to work today then back up town after work. After walking around Mt. Vernon a bit, Sara's parents, who were in town, picked me up and took a bunch of us girls out to dinner at Zella's Pizzeria.
OMG, this place is amazing! Mondays are by-one-get-one pizza night, definitely worth taking advantage of (as discussed on the Baltimore Pizza Club blog). We had some good times and ate some good things. They then drove me home, what a date!
Today I walked to the grocery store down the street to get supplies for the ice cream social Stephanie and I were hosting at our house. We supplied the ice cream and attendees supplied the toppings, the craziest/most uniquely delicious topping won a prize! Bonnie won with her buttered popcorn.
Every topping available, all at once. Madness.
After the social Aran and I rode to his house in his car to get the equipment for our show in DC tonight. Here is the hilarious flyer I am just seeing now. It was a double set of Height with Friends and AK Slaughter. It was a Sunday and it was whatever. After the show, I drove Aran's car (with him nodding off in the passenger's seat) back to Baltimore around 2am(?) in the rain. We both slept at Joe's that night (no sexy stuff).
This morning I walked to the Waverly Farmers Market and met up with Bonnie. We walked back to my house to drop off the vegetable goods then walked to a flea market at a church near North Ave. It was kind of a bust, but I did buy some brightly colored yarn and cooking pots. I then walked to the crepe shop to give Joe some food because he was working a double. Then, I met up with Bonnie again and went to her house to use her internet to reserve a zipcar. Turns out you have to reserve these things ahead of time (surprise!) and I really needed to get to the fabric store in the suburbs. It was 1pm by now and the next available zipcar in the entire city wouldn't be free until 6pm. Damn it. Lesson learned, people are apparently using these things like hotcakes. So, Bonnie drove me home and I got in my car and headed towards Sara's house to get her, then to the SUBURBS.
Driving my car makes me sad sometimes.
So far, not doing very well with this whole "not driving my car" thing.
Today I biked to work from my house then left early to get to Penn station by 3:30pm. I caught the train to DC just in time (sweaty=attractive) and took it to the Metro Red Line which then wisked me away to the DC ZipCar office. There, I met with the Zip Car people and was given a ton of free things, like way more than expected. We talked about the Low Car Diet and zipcars in general. After leaving the office I decided to check out the National Portrait Gallery, which is open until 7pm everyday (hello!). Oh man, it is such a cool place.
Here are a couple highlights:
After the museum, I got back on the train to Baltimore and upon my arrival called Joe to get a ride home because I couldn't bike with all of my wonderful, edible Zipcar goods.
I left Joe's around 7:30am this morning and biked down to the office (fun). After work, I biked back up to his house and attempted to take a brief nap before heading over the Mickey's studio to record an episode of our podcast Is This Racist.
Didn't really have time to actually chill at Joe's, plus someone upstairs was incessantly strumming a guitar the whole time, but it's whatever... no rest for the weary or some shit. Anyway, I hopped back on bike (why was it like 100 degrees today?) and booked it to Hampden. This month we had a special guest, Jon Ehrens, he talked about his new band White Life (hell of good) and Mick and I did the usual "making cutting remarks to each other" thing. It was fun!
After recording, I biked back home and Joe came over. We then walked to the Giant and picked up pizza making supplies. On the way back, I found this girl's passport in the parking lot.
Today I biked to work (from Waverly to Federal Hill, approx 5 miles) and then nine hours later headed back up town to check out the Wham City Lecture Series presentation with R.M. O'Brien and Connor Kizer. Oh man, it was really great! Bob talked about Bruce Springsteen and it was so informative and entertaining that it made me actually want to listen to Bruce Springsteen for once. Connor talked about a new esoteric order that involved the Internet or the destruction of the Internet(?) or the end of the world or the beginings of a new world(?), whatever it ruled and was confusing and great.
My pals Cream Dream sold ice cream and I ate a scoop of vanilla sea salt, a scoop of chocolate w/grits and a scoop of Rockford honey (which was absolutely insane.) I then walked about 13 feet back to Joe's house.
Ok. So I've already screwed this up. The day before yesterday I played a Height with Friends show in Charlottesville Virginia and we didn't get back until like 3am (I think). Yesterday, I got an endoscopy (camera down the throat) so they could take a look at my pancreas, which is in perfect working order, btw. Needless to say, I felt a little weird today from a combination of lack of sleep, a long time on the road and being under sedation for an unknown length of time, soooo I drove to work this morning. Not really the best way to start out this challenge, considering the whole point is notto drive your car. Failure from the get-go.
