Bike…Art?

Indeed! Despite protests that I had no plans to go out last Thursday evening (as I’d already been out and about every night that week and had plans for Friday), an email popped up touting the opening of a show about bicycle art. MAP (Maryland Art Place) is just down the street from my place of work, the opening was free, and I like bicycles. So against my (mostly non-existent) better judgement, I sent a call out to some awesome ladies and we went and got ourselves some culture.

The show was fairly small, but the pieces were interesting and the gallery was a nice place (even if we had to go through Power Plant Live to get to it). I’d never been to MAP before, so it was nice to familiarize myself with it and hopefully I’ll get over there again for some of their upcoming shows.

Stacy and Molly check out a couple of our favorite pieces – oil paint bike portraits. Sadly, all the works were out of our price ranges.

 

 

 

 

During the opening there were cyclists doing tricks in the gallery on these “HI” ramps – pretty cool, though I couldn’t help but feel for the poor worker who was going to have to clean the floors after.

All in all it was definitely worth the trip. After a not-so-quick visit to the Harbor’s Barnes & Noble and some delicious Chipotle tacos, we were still amped up about bicycles and decided to go catch Premium Rush over at the Harbor East cinema. If you haven’t seen JGL biking through New York like a vintage car chase, you really haven’t lived.

 

Adventures in Hampden…and Beyond!

Since a close friend moved over there a month ago I’ve found myself over in Hampden quite a bit the last few weeks. It’s kind of funny, since it’s the first neighborhood I lived in when I came to the city and I don’t think I really appreciated it then. Now, I’m not feeling nostalgic enough to move back there (I really LOVE Patterson Park), but it sure is a great place to visit!

Thursday evening was really the start of an adventure packed weekend. I left work a little early to give blood (I’ve started donating again, after a 7 year hiatus – it feels good, although I’m always a little anxious until the blood starts filling the bag. Once that bits going smoothly it’s a quick ten minutes and I get to feel like a lifesaver for at least the rest of the day!)  and on the drive back (the center was out in White Marsh) Sacks asked me to come look at a couple of apartments with her. I’m always happy to be a second pair of eyes and drove over to her current place in Hampden.

While the spots we saw ended up being a bust, we did stop at One World Cafe in between for a pretty delicious (and HUGE) hummus sandwich and a beer (for her) and a smoothie (for me – while it can be fun to drink after giving blood, seeing as I still had to work on Friday I decided discretion was the better part of valor. Plus, the raspberry chia smoothly was delicious.). And then, of course, there was the bartender who tried to seduce me for my sunglasses, a tact I am entirely ok with (they’re pretty awesome sunglasses – though in need of replacement. Trying to find an equally cool pair to replace them with has been a challenge!). So all in all, One World was a great choice. 🙂

Friday’s where things start getting a little crazy – it was girls night. It was First Friday, where Hampden shops stay open late, offer sale prices and (some places) free booze and snacks! A few of our party acquired some of the cutest dresses I’ve seen in awhile and we grabbed a margarita (or two) over at Holy Frijoles. Next it was off to a house warming party – the house was purple, which hey, pretty cool. The party itself? Not so great. However: the house had a slide off the porch. A SLIDE PEOPLE. I still don’t understand how everyone at that party was not lined up clamoring for a turn but whatever. We ROCKED that slide hardcore. It was AWESOME.

Some superior slide action.

Next up on the agenda was Save Your Soul, another first friday event, over at the AMAZING Lithuanian Hall in Pigtown. Sadly, the late hour and long line left us cold, so we turned around and (after a couple of stops) headed over to Joe Squared for a beer, to unintentional catch the last set of some very loud (but talented) musicians and NOT get any pizza (can you tell I might still be a little bitter about that one?). But the best is yet to come – on the way back to delivering ladies to their homes and cars it was decided that we MUST stop at 7-11 for snacks and vitamin water. Who should we share our 7-11 experience? The one and only John Waters! I swear, I love this town.

Thankfully Saturday started with a nice lie-in. I didn’t roll out of bed until after noon. I had made plans w/friends to bike over to Fort McHenry in the early evening to enjoy their Defender’s Day celebrations (with fireworks!) but the string of thunderstorms and tornado warnings put the kibosh on that. Instead, Molly and I decided to head back over to Hampden for Hampden Fest – only to arrive too late! Two disappointments in a row – luckily our tears were assuaged with delicious dinner at Golden West, although we were definitely overambitious in our ordering and no amount of telepathy proved enough to lure a cute boy over to the table to help us eat it. But hey, I’ve got half a sandwich in the fridge waiting to be enjoyed, so it’s not all bad.

Thus fortified, we headed back over to the East side and were introduced to the fabulous Polish Home Club! A very chill place to spend an evening – and we even managed to get a tour of the banquet hall and “velvet room,” definitely worth seeing if you get the chance. There was live polka music, Polish beer and bowls of cheese balls and potato chips – what’s not to love?

Sunday (what, you thought we were finished? Bah! Puny mortals.) Molly, Stacy and I headed out to the NCR trail for a bike ride. While we struggled with the transportation of three adult sized bicycles the ride itself was a breeze. We even stopped and played at an on-trail “fitness” center, complete with a few sets of hanging rings! It was a blast all around.

A Pleasantly Laborious Labor Day!

Labor Day was supposed to be a day of rest, to recover from all the pie-festing – the original plan: hit up Costco so Sacks could buy chicken in bulk for her dog. Which turned into “hey, let’s stop at the bike shop in Towson…

and since we’re here let’s go visit Lush…” (she uses their solid shampoo and after hearing her effuse about it I’m seriously considering trying it out – we’ve both got super short hair, it’s all natural and theoretically one of those $10 bars lasts almost 6 months!) And since we were in the mall, well, I had a $50 gift certificate to Nordstrom’s burning a hole in my wallet. While the Rack didn’t satisfy, I fell in love with a gorgeous, black and white striped jacket at the regular store. Normally there’s no way in hell I’d spend $80 ($80! That is crazy) on a single piece, but I rationalized – the gift certificate dropped it to $30. Plus, I had just found out I’d be getting a sort of promotion at work, which comes with a small raise. It’s a professional jacket and so now it’s MY new, congrats-on-the-promotion jacket! (Also, this may be the first time in my life I think I look better in the piece than the model, for serious, this jacket is AWESOME on me.) And by that point, we were starving, so lunch in the food court it was. (I always find something very liberating and a little bit…naughty? about eating in a mall food court. Don’t know why, but I like it!) Then, when we finally make it to Costco: foiled! Turns out, it’s closed on Labor Day (and wouldn’t that have been a nice thing to put on the hours page of the website >:[ ) ! So what had been planned as a quick errand turned into an all day affair. The week hadn’t really started yet and I was already exhausted.

 

This is just to say…

That life, as per usual, is crazy (and fun!) (and exhausting!) (and exhilarating!)(and a bunch of other interesting and entertaining adjectives!).

Friday I joined up with some 700 other cyclists for a “Moonlight Madness” Critical Mass bike ride through the city (you can read a little bit about it here). It. Was. Awesome. (Despite some of my complaining along the way, it was really fun.) Riding through the city for a few hours only to end up at a party in the park was the perfect way to end the work week. I can’t wait for the next one.

Sunday was the B’Eat More Pie Festival, brainchild of myself and my amazing co-founder Elena of Biscuits and Such (the best, in my opinion, Southern food blog on the web!). The fest was a great success – you can read about it at those links.

In conclusion: I’m tired! But happy! But tired!