The sun was out today, and oh my, but that can lift a girl’s mood. I took the bike and headed down the hill to the Hippodrome for volunteer usher training (yes, I’m already acting like a retiree). I’ve been through downtown, but I’ve never been through that neighborhood, and today it was bustling with people shopping, street-preaching, waiting for the bus, and just generally enjoying the sunshine. Continue reading
Presentation at Red Emma’s Bookstore and Cafe in Mt. Vernon
I spent the day at work and stopped into the gym to get some exercise in out of the rain. Surprise, surprise, though, the sun came out this afternoon! Well, maybe not the sun, but the rain was gone, so I took the bike and flew down the hill to see Dulcey Lewis’s presentation of her senior thesis research on the Lesbian Avengers at the anarchist collective coffee shop and bookstore.
The place was packed and I enjoyed listening to the Avengers being talked about like an ancient cult–I guess the early 90s are a historical netherworld in some circles. We have got to remember our histories, and I’m glad folks are on the case. I stayed after to mix and mingle, went for a beer and a snack with V., and then rode back up the hill in the cool breeze of September in Baltimore, a lovely Friday night in the bag.
Lush Trees in Druid Hill Park
Oh, rain, please give it a rest! And it did this afternoon. Sure, there were gray skies and clouds and some spitting, but I managed to sneak in a ride in the relatively dry afternoon after a good day of work. I decided to head over to Druid Hill Park to check out the green, and there was a lot of it. Continue reading
Pigeons at 36th & Roland
For some reason I had convinced myself yesterday that the weather today was going to be delightfully sunny, maybe a tiny bit cool, so when it was time to head over to Hampden for a much-needed haircut. I pulled the bike out and felt the rain, but what are you going to do, get in a car to go less/fewer than two miles? Continue reading
Capital Bike Share at 10th & Constitution
I took myself to Our Nation’s Capital today to see J. and meet up with M., who low and behold, wants to get stamps in her National Parks Passport just as much as I do. Which is a lot. I thought about bringing my bike, figuring that the city’d be easiest to navigate by bike, like every other city I’ve visited. I left the Surly at home, though, and I’m glad I did, because D.C. has a bike share program! Continue reading
A.J. Michaels at York Road & Ready Lane
So the thing with living in a new town is that you pretty much do whatever the googleymap tells you to do, or at least that’s what I do. After a long day at work–first week, in the bag!–I drove home grabbed the bike, and followed the googleymap over to B. & G.’s for a lovely evening of wine, snacks, and meeting new people. Continue reading
Burned Out House on Georgetown Road & St. Marks
I had one morning meeting up on campus and nothing else on my schedule, so I figured it was high time I take the bike on the commute. I left myself two hours to go the ten miles, fully expecting to get lost/get a flat/get so tired I’d have to walk. Well, I did get lost, but I’ve been memorizing streets on my drive over the past couple weeks for just this event, so I knew Saratoga crossed Monroe, and once I was on Monroe I could follow the same route I take in the car. Voila! Continue reading
Blocked Bike/Ped Lane on Light Street
So Baltimore’s got this thing coming up called the Grand Prix. They’re blocking off a bunch of streets downtown, the ramp onto 395, a light rail station, and effectively cutting off a main artery through town–all traffic will now go on MLK–and then some Indy cars will come race around the 2+ mile course while the rest of us just try to stay away, unless, of course, we can afford the $20-$895 tickets, plus $30 to park non-Indy cars. Continue reading
Johns Hopkins Hospital at Broadway & Monument
The new semester starts this week, and I am a busy, busy bee. I worked and worked and worked from the second I woke up, and by the time I got home, I was exhausted. And that’s the perfect time for a bicycle ride. Really, a bike ride just brushes all that other stuff away, and that’s what I did as I zipped around the neighborhood, saying my how you doin’s and taking the sidewalk on that sketchy turn onto Bonaparte, and took Broadway from North Avenue down to Fells Point. I had no idea that’s where the street ended–I’m still new in town. Continue reading
Block of Empty Rowhouses at Oliver & Brentwood
I woke up this morning to gray skies and the promise of rain for the rest of the weekend, so I hopped up, sucked down a breakfast smoothie (thanks, E., for the gifts!), and took the bike over to Collington Square Park to meet Odette Ramos, candidate for City Council from the 12th district for a bike tour of the district. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 