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Sep. 9th, 2007 11:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonI'm sitting in The Daily Grind, a good local coffee shop in Fells Point, Baltimore, not far from the fish markets. I parked a few doors down, in front of the Cat's Eye pub, one of my favorite occasional hangouts some years ago -- I have fond memories of good grungy music and good grungy people there. Bertha's (motto: "Eat Bertha's Mussels!") is still here, but Fell's Point is not the place it was when John Waters was haunting it -- it's become largely yuppified, but it still holds vestiges of the grittier days I remember, back when it was an eclectic and most definitely not upscale dock and warehouse area, dangerous to walk at night.
C has been out here most of the week, attending a rather grueling training conference around treatment protocols for neonates in the NICU -- a hard, hard patient population to work with...so hard to see such tiny people struggle and, too often, die before they ever had a chance to really live. But more live and thrive than it used to be, and even some of the the sub-2 lb premies make it now. They'll always have a tough time of it, but now the complications are known, and we know how to deal with them better.
I've been on daddy duty this week while C was away, but I arranged pretty much at the last minute to fly out to join her and have a couple of evenings and a day of mini "adult getaway." Last night there was a speakeasy, a word-of-mouth place with a hidden locked door marked only with a blue light, and a small sliding grate behind which we were peered at and assessed before being let into a sumptuous bar where a master alchemist held court with amazing and complex concoctions. I took notes -- for instance, who knew that a few drops of tobacco infusion mixed with honeycomb, basil and bourbon would make something that tastes...well, indescribable, but it tastes like that. Wow. And then just around the corner, there was a 7-course tasting menu at an amazing restaurant (yes, Paul, I'm bringing home the menu). I may not eat again for a week. The only bad part was getting up at 630am this morning so I could drive C to the last day of her training, after an extremely late evening of many diverse kinds of delightful indulgence, all of which made us far more interested in rolling over and going back to sleep than getting up to drive into Baltimore. But duty calls. Dammit.
A million thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lylythe_strega and Paul and Once and Future Housemate Angelica for taking care of the Beamish Boy this weekend, and for the opportunity to get out for a bit. With all the parental health issues, it's been very tiring for us all lately, and it's good to be able to stop for a bit and take a few deep breaths.
I'm on my way to the Walters Art Museum here in Baltimore, which has a fascinating exhibit of Egyptian magical items and art that I've been wanting to see, and then perhaps back to Fell's Point for lunch, and then I may get to see a local artist friend I've very much missed, and I'm hoping he and I can go the gallery where he has a piece in a show and I can ogle his lovely art.
It's so odd being here, in this area, where I spent 13 years. It's all so familiar, yet so many bits have changed. It's nice to visit, though, and it triggers so much -- old friends and old haunts, memories and experiences, pleasures and joys, longings and sorrows, experiences undisturbed for years twinging and twinkling and coming up to the surface before settling back into the past.
As I told C last night, I like having been from here. As in, it's good to have spent time here, and it's good to be able to come back and visit, and I'm also very glad that we live where we do, and how we do. I like many things about DC and Baltimore, most of all the friends we still have here, but...it's not home, and some of the things that led us to migrate northwards are even moreso than they were. A nondescript house just a few doors down from where we used to live is selling for $550,000. Traffic is even worse. The heat is worse than I remember -- part global warming, part my lack of acclimation to the climate. Air conditioning is running everywhere, and that seems so weird to my northern sensibilities. There are so damn many people here, so heavy on the land, almost crushing, so few green places, so much being used, consumed, disposed of, so many people running around, always going from one place to another. In one way it's so busy and glorious and alive, and in another way it depresses me if I think about it too much.
But now to toss back the rest of a damn good cup of coffee, and go suck all the marrow out of my time here, to enjoy a day of cool museums and more good coffee houses, dinner tonight at our favorite hole in the wall Thai place, a day tomorrow, just C and I, soaking up museums and then back into the middle of a crazy-busy week, hopefully refreshed and rested, and glad to be back home again.
C has been out here most of the week, attending a rather grueling training conference around treatment protocols for neonates in the NICU -- a hard, hard patient population to work with...so hard to see such tiny people struggle and, too often, die before they ever had a chance to really live. But more live and thrive than it used to be, and even some of the the sub-2 lb premies make it now. They'll always have a tough time of it, but now the complications are known, and we know how to deal with them better.
I've been on daddy duty this week while C was away, but I arranged pretty much at the last minute to fly out to join her and have a couple of evenings and a day of mini "adult getaway." Last night there was a speakeasy, a word-of-mouth place with a hidden locked door marked only with a blue light, and a small sliding grate behind which we were peered at and assessed before being let into a sumptuous bar where a master alchemist held court with amazing and complex concoctions. I took notes -- for instance, who knew that a few drops of tobacco infusion mixed with honeycomb, basil and bourbon would make something that tastes...well, indescribable, but it tastes like that. Wow. And then just around the corner, there was a 7-course tasting menu at an amazing restaurant (yes, Paul, I'm bringing home the menu). I may not eat again for a week. The only bad part was getting up at 630am this morning so I could drive C to the last day of her training, after an extremely late evening of many diverse kinds of delightful indulgence, all of which made us far more interested in rolling over and going back to sleep than getting up to drive into Baltimore. But duty calls. Dammit.
A million thanks to
lylythe_strega and Paul and Once and Future Housemate Angelica for taking care of the Beamish Boy this weekend, and for the opportunity to get out for a bit. With all the parental health issues, it's been very tiring for us all lately, and it's good to be able to stop for a bit and take a few deep breaths.I'm on my way to the Walters Art Museum here in Baltimore, which has a fascinating exhibit of Egyptian magical items and art that I've been wanting to see, and then perhaps back to Fell's Point for lunch, and then I may get to see a local artist friend I've very much missed, and I'm hoping he and I can go the gallery where he has a piece in a show and I can ogle his lovely art.
It's so odd being here, in this area, where I spent 13 years. It's all so familiar, yet so many bits have changed. It's nice to visit, though, and it triggers so much -- old friends and old haunts, memories and experiences, pleasures and joys, longings and sorrows, experiences undisturbed for years twinging and twinkling and coming up to the surface before settling back into the past.
As I told C last night, I like having been from here. As in, it's good to have spent time here, and it's good to be able to come back and visit, and I'm also very glad that we live where we do, and how we do. I like many things about DC and Baltimore, most of all the friends we still have here, but...it's not home, and some of the things that led us to migrate northwards are even moreso than they were. A nondescript house just a few doors down from where we used to live is selling for $550,000. Traffic is even worse. The heat is worse than I remember -- part global warming, part my lack of acclimation to the climate. Air conditioning is running everywhere, and that seems so weird to my northern sensibilities. There are so damn many people here, so heavy on the land, almost crushing, so few green places, so much being used, consumed, disposed of, so many people running around, always going from one place to another. In one way it's so busy and glorious and alive, and in another way it depresses me if I think about it too much.
But now to toss back the rest of a damn good cup of coffee, and go suck all the marrow out of my time here, to enjoy a day of cool museums and more good coffee houses, dinner tonight at our favorite hole in the wall Thai place, a day tomorrow, just C and I, soaking up museums and then back into the middle of a crazy-busy week, hopefully refreshed and rested, and glad to be back home again.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-09 09:46 pm (UTC)I want to thank C for attending the conference on treating NICU kids.
Our family is so grateful for the two miracles we've had from the folks in that 'nursing population' -- one kid, now eleven and winner of an all-school prize for academics, spent 6 weeks in NICU with meningitis after Mom's intra-uterine infection just at due-date; the other, now two and meeting all her postnatal-age milestones except size, was born at 1 pound 4 ounces and I forget how many too-few weeks gestation (due June, born February, what does that work out to?). She wouldna be here atall if it weren't for some dedicated nurses and docs who knew just what to do ... for nearly three months ... whew!
In gratitude for all the great work you both do, both mundane and magical
no subject
Date: 2007-09-09 11:49 pm (UTC)I sometimes wonder if I will ever leave this area - part of the reason I like it is the population density.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 01:23 am (UTC)You can eat them in the dining room, you can eat them in the bar.
So when you're ashore in Baltimore and you fancy a bite to eat.
Just follow your nose to Bertha's, you'll be in for a rare old treat!
It's funny, when we first left DC for Charlottesville we came back all the time, at least once a month (only 2 hours away, after all). But after a year or so, we just didn't have the desire to subject ourselves to the dynamic of the high population/high pressure environment. Add a year and a half of Orlando - worse than DC, something I didn't think was possible - and I'm not sure I could ever return again. Even Charlottesville seems to be too built up for my tastes now, although we still have family obligations there.
And there are no moose.
Almost forgot - if The Wharf Rat is still in existence, you must have a pint of their Scotch Ale, a gravity pour that is more than decent.
You're in Baltimore??!!
Date: 2007-09-12 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-14 10:00 pm (UTC)I was happy to see your note about Winter Camp -- if/when it happens, it would be so great to see you there!
no subject
Date: 2007-09-14 10:04 pm (UTC)This was a real whirlwind trip (for me in particular, and C was heads-down in classes), and mostly a brief C & me time away to cavort a bit, so we did almost no visiting this time, but I'd love to be able to get together on some future trip...
no subject
Date: 2007-09-14 10:07 pm (UTC)I missed the Rat, but I did peruse the monthly Fells Point swap meet that happened to be there that day. Think of all the stuff Balmerians have down in their basements. Scary.
Re: You're in Baltimore??!!
Date: 2007-09-14 10:08 pm (UTC)