keeping busy

don't wanna jinx myself, but it's been a pretty good weekend so far - today is day 5 (my boss is out of town). after my usual saturday morning farmers market trip & yoga, we went to Patapsco Valley State Park and went for a hike. it was a beautiful park w/ lots of deer & a suspension bridge. we enjoyed a picnic dinner on the roof, followed by some reading for me & game playing on the cell phone for dan. we ended the day at a bar in fells point with a friend of dan's visiting from chicago. it was a full day.

i decided to skip my usual sunday morning yoga to walk downtown to the farmers market. not that i needed any fresh veges but it was such a gorgeous day & i really enjoy walking downtown on sunday - people around in the morning going to church & such. this time i decided to do a little alley walking just to get a different view. i forget how big Baltimore is sometimes because i tend to stay in & around our neighborhood. (there's a central north-south stretch of the city, a gentrified portion, where i feel safe most of the time. too far to the east or west & it definitely doesn't feel safe.) i've been feeling a bit bummed out about Baltimore for a while. after our trip to St. Louis earlier this summer, i've really been missing grass & trees, front yards, gardens... & i'm so tired of rats. & crime. i want to feel safe walking by myself. when you're walking & you have to be aware of your surroundings all the time, it takes the fun out of it. anyway, my sunday morning walks are nice & relaxing. i just kind of wander in the general direction of the market & take pictures of things i like. it's a time for me to enjoy something i've always enjoyed about Baltimore - the buildings, the architecture, the general fabric & texture of the city. i love to look around - especially in the alleys (during the day) or at night when it's possible to see in people's windows as you pass by. (but i'm not a peeping tom.) so i had a nice walk to the market & then my pal, katie, walked back with me after the market closed. it was another gorgeous day.

yesterday i busied myself helping my boss's sister pack up her moving truck. she worked with us for several months this spring & summer while we gutted & renovated her & her husband's new home in Baltimore County (where it's quieter & they have lush green lawns & chipmunks, not rats). but a few weeks after the job was completed, they decided to get a divorce, which seemed odd at the time because we'd all just broken our backs to finish this house for them. anyway, her dad & i rode up yesterday morning to move furniture & pack up the truck. it wasn't a bad way to spend most of the day. on the drive home, i was able to show my boss's dad where Trader Joe's & Target are & he picked up a yoga mat at the Barnes & Noble while i paid a visit to the danners. i enjoy spending time with david (my boss's dad) when we're not at work. he's fun to talk to & he has a good sense of humor. but he can be absolutely maddening to work with... very very slow, almost to the point of seeming completely incompetent. it's nice to spend time with him & feel like he is competent.

so that brings us to today. what's in store? dunno. we talked about a possible day trip to D.C. although it doesn't seem that there are too many interesting exhibits at the museums & i don't know my way around except for the national mall. but maybe we'll be adventurous... (side note: dan met dorothy hammil at work yesterday. apparently she lives here... along w/ nikolai volkov.)