Highlight for the day Sunday (yesterday) is a little different. The whole weekend was a good one; Saturday Maureen and I went to Target for some shopping, then to the animal shelter to pick up her new kitty (which they spayed as part of the $30 adoption fee). That night was the last showing of The Laramie Project, which was also the actors' best performance, I think. Following that was a cast party that the director arranged at a local cafe -- a private event for cast and crew with delicious food and wine, all at no expense to us.

Sunday was my first day off from everything in weeks; thanks to daylight savings, I had an extra hour to enjoy it. I eventually moseyed on down (well, up) to a new(ish) coffee shop called the Bohemian Coffee House; it's definitely worth returning to. I've been on a quest for a new coffee shop to sit and write at since I moved here, and this one seems to have an atmosphere close to what I wanted -- small and cozy without being too cramped; casual enough that I didn't feel like I should leave immediately after finishing my coffee. I spent about an hour there writing a letter to a family member, then took the bus up to a park to do an assignment, Andy Goldsworthy style, for my creativity class. My friend Dave came out and offered me company (not without occasional harassment, particularly when I wouldn't acquiesce to making a map of Saginaw out of the objects I gathered). This was followed by a trip to The Book Thing (like I need another book, ever) and dinner at Subway.

But the highlight of my day was actually a story that Jake told me when I talked to him on the phone later that night. He and his housemates just lost their home in a fire, and Steamer's (a bar in Saginaw that we frequent [me not so much anymore]) along with the help of some other Saginaw locals, threw a benefit party in Jake's, Scott's, Nick's, and Jason's honor. Apparently the turnout was much better than expected and the guys were given enough money to cover the deposit and first month's rent on their new place (which their new landlord, after reading of their situation in the newspaper, offered them first choice on despite the other people interested in viewing it). Not to mention furniture -- at least one bed, a TV, a couch... It was amazing, both to hear about the turnout and to hear how moved Jake was by everyone's generosity and support.

But the best part for me was regarding something one of the housemates did for another. My friend Scott lost the most in the fire -- his furniture, TV, x-box, and record and DVD collections were all in the living room, where the fire consumed the most. He also lost his laptop. He's a writer, and an artist, and of course had most of his work saved on the laptop with no alternate back-up anywhere.


This is said laptop.

I can imagine, as a writer myself, how devastated I would be if I lost years of work (as it is, I should probably work out a better backup system myself). From what I'm told, Scott got pretty depressed and left the house, giving up on the DVDs, records, etc. Jason went back over there and sorted through some of the records and DVDs for him -- turns out those things are more durable than one would think, especially when still inside their plastic cases.

But the best part is this: At the benefit, the four guys were gathered around a table at Steamer's (forgive me for not knowing whether all these details are completely accurate; I'm recreating this from a phone conversation) and Nick was offering up a toast. He said something like, "I'm really glad that we all still have our laptops, and that we didn't lose anything."

Scott said, "Except for me."

Nick continued, "It would be a shame to lose any of our work or anything we had saved, so I'm really glad we didn't."

Scott said, "Nick, I don't have mine, can we skip this part."

But Nick carried on as I can imagine, saying something like, "Hold on, I'm not done yet." He finishes his speech in some (probably ridiculous) fashion, and Scott is probably properly depressed again... At which point Nick presents Scott with his completely functional laptop hard-drive (or at least the data taken from it). Nick had taken the laptop apart at some point, retrieved the hard drive, tested it and discovered that it was undamaged. Scott didn't lose his work after all.

I just really wish I could have been there to see Scott's reaction. I understand it was joyous.

Today's highlight was the energy of the Laramie Project cast before tonight's show. Everyone was happy, everyone was ready, everyone was feeling that nervous energy. As the assistant stage manager (and Cheez-It supplier, according to my friend Dave [who's on lights]) I don't get to interact with the cast too much off-stage -- though a couple of the ladies have been incredibly sweet and welcoming (the whole cast has been very friendly), and my stage manager Susan is amazing to work for. But tonight there was a stronger sense of... unity, maybe, of community. Or maybe I just felt more included in it. Anyway, before the show I had conversations with at least two more of the cast members in particular -- just the basic stuff, you know, where they're from, what they're doing -- but I like connecting with people like that. I mean, I suppose we're still just acquaintances, for the most part, but nonetheless.

That kind of happened yesterday too. Another cast member and I walk home along the same route for a couple blocks. It gave us a chance to talk last night and tonight (for whatever reason, I guess we'd never left rehearsal at the same time before then). I found out that she's an artist who manages to support herself without a "real job" (though she teaches painting classes from time to time). She lived in MI (where I grew up) for a few years too.

I'm hoping I manage to keep in touch with some of them, somehow, after the show's over.

One night down, two to go.

Today's highlight was -- well, there are a couple, but the first one was the library book sale. I work for the library on campus and every year they have a book sale. I volunteered to help set up this morning (at 10am, which I sort of regretted after having stayed up past 2am). But it was worth it. The book sale wasn't especially big, and was mostly a weeding of the business and social sciences sections, but there were some good "miscellaneous" books and a bit of literature.

Now since moving here to Baltimore in August I've acquired well over 80 new (used) books. Between The Book Thing and the book festival in September, it's been easy to get good books for cheap. But being an English major, I can't help but acquire more when the opportunity arises. Today was an opportunity. By volunteering with setup, I got to have first dibs on the books I wanted even before the sale opened to the public. And I found this ridiculously interesting book published in 1927 by General Electric titled Electric Refrigerator Recipes and Menus. I don't even know why I find it so fascinating. It has little color pictures and talks about food prep and storage and why every house should have an electric refrigerator. It's quite charming.

I found some other good things too: a book by Roddy Doyle (the guy who wrote "The Commitments"), Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and Hemingway's Farewell to Arms, among others. I got a stir fry cookbook too, though the one other cook book I have I think I used all of once...

Anyway, the other highlight was talking to a new classmate on Facebook chat. I don't know him especially well but we got to talking about big things going on in our lives, and it seems that we've both made some pretty big changes recently. He's just moved out of his comfort zone, out of a long relationship and a life that he wasn't completely happy in, and is in essence starting over. And you know, it's really... encouraging, or refreshing, maybe, to talk to someone else who had the courage to go after what he wanted, to leave his comfort zone and risk the unknown because he wanted more out of life. Too many people I know, even among my friends, have allowed themselves to settle for lives that aren't quite what they want and I don't understand why. I couldn't do it.

Today's highlight was probably unexpectedly finding a check in the mail from the University for $2500. I mean, it was completely baffling. It is the exact amount of half my scholarship for the year, but if it is for spring, it shouldn't have come until February.

Maybe that's not that much of a highlight after all, because now I won't get that money in Feb. and I can't spend it now anyway.

So maybe the highlight was the banter back and forth over the headsets during rehearsal for Laramie Project tonight. I'm assistant stage manager, so I'm back stage next to the video tech guy, Anthony, who's also on a headset. My friend Dave, who's running lights in the booth at the back of the auditorium, on a third headset. I can't really recall the details of the conversation here, much less replicate it enough to make it humorous, but it was pretty difficult to stifle my laughing enough to not be heard offstage. Something tasteless involving a strange correlation between lesbians and umbrellas and Dave having several (umbrellas). Anthony always has a one-liner or a wisecrack, and Dave's just funny. Even the stage manager got in on it. It was refreshing to be around people with a real sense of humor, especially after meeting Carlos, who was out with the group Maureen and I met up with for Halloween last night. His idea of a funny story was his first time in a gay bar -- which could be a funny story, really, if the delivery was better. But I'll not pick on him; he was trying, I guess.

Anyway, yeah. Highlight of the day: fun(ny) new acquaintances/friends.

I'm going to try something different with this, I think. I clearly can't keep myself in a mindset where I update on any regular basis, because I let myself fall behind so much that it would take even longer or more frequent posting to catch up. A vicious cycle and such. So, I'm going to try and post a daily highlight each night, of something good that happened that day. Maybe not every night. But it will only require a paragraph or two (depending on how much I want to explain) instead of a recap. Maybe.

It's become really difficult to get myself to write in here when I have so many other places I need to be writing. I'm half tempted to just start pasting in emails that I've sent to my mom and grandma so that I don't have to repeat everything I've been telling them.

I'm writing from Baltimore. The trip was fairly uneventful; even the cat traveled better than expected, without the kitty tranquilizers (I got a couple from the vet just in case). She stayed overnight in the room with us at an Econo-lodge in Ohio, too, without any trouble. The only casualty of moving has been a lamp with a glass-paned shade; two of the panes and two of the bulbs got broken (the third has since burnt out). I was able to super-glue the panes back together (though it's obvious where they cracked) and it seems to be holding just fine.

In lieu of my last post though, I am learning quickly -- mostly not from firsthand experience -- that the "good" and "bad" sections of Baltimore aren't so clearly defined as those of Saginaw. Each of the main neighborhoods seems almost to be an island of "good area" with a moat of "bad area" surrounding (though it still holds true that West Baltimore is to be avoided).

The city and my lack of acquaintances in it have both done wonders for my sense of autonomy though. I used to do things on my own fairly often in Saginaw (I hesitate to say "back home" now, because in a strange way it feels like I can't go back there, and so Baltimore is "home" now) -- I'd go to the mall, or the coffee shop, or the library, etc. But I'd never taken a city bus by myself, for example (actually, I never took a bus anywhere in Saginaw. Their public transportation system left a lot to be desired). And I've done a fair amount of exploring on my own here (though M, my roommate, has been tremendously helpful in showing me where things are). I've spent a lot more of time on my own, period. Especially the first couple weeks, before I met anyone. Being alone in a strange new place adds a whole other level to it all.

I've caught myself once or twice while reading friends' updates on facebook forgetting for just a split second that it isn't 5 or 10 minutes to get to the Saginaw mall or coffee shop now. The flight from here to there isn't especially long or expensive, but there's a lot more planning involved in a visit than before.

It's kind of hard sometimes to read updates and to know that their lives are carrying on without me -- game nights, bar nights, etc. But my life is carrying on without them, too. Sometimes I catch myself thinking that if I could just bring two or three of them with me... but I know that's unrealistic. I can only hope that despite the distance we can keep in touch, and maybe visit once in awhile.

My new friend Katie (who I met through Maureen) and I went rollerblading today; she took me to a park called Centennial Park that has a trail around a lake. It was something like 3 miles around, we figured... we went all the way around, but it was exhausting, especially since it was so hot. She has a pool though, in her back yard, and she told me to bring a suit so we could swim afterward. And we did. Very refreshing.

I had my second class tonight, a poetry workshop. We didn't do any actual writing tonight but we talked about some stuff related to poetry, and the professor gave us this assignment where we drew three "first lines" out of a cup and we have to write poems about them. My lines were "Another word for father is worry," "No matter how many times I try," and "I am going to carry my bed into New York City tonight." I don't know what I'm going to do with any of those yet.

The other night after I got out of my first class I was walking to Starbucks, and this guy (not a creeper, just a normal guy) driving down the road next to me rolled down his window and said, "This is like the fifth time I've seen you today! Are you in the MFA program?" I was like, "Yes, I am," and he said that he is too, a second year, and that he'd seen me by the building a bunch of times (I didn't recognize him, but I couldn't see him too clearly because it was getting kind of dark and he was in his car). He introduced himself, said he was sure he'd see me around and drove off. Well yesterday I got an email from him -- it turns out he runs the UB Theatrical Society (which I'd signed up to get info about at orientation) and wanted to know if I would be interested in an officer position. He said he liked to have another MFA person in the secretary position because they would have similar schedules and could meet to discuss meetings, projects, etc. more easily. He offered to buy me coffee or lunch one day so we could talk more about it. Could be a good thing to have on a resume if I decide to do it.

Tomorrow I work at the library 11-3 then I have Friday through Monday off since Monday is Labor Day. There's talk of a trip to a swimming quarry on Saturday (Katie and Maureen are going) but other than that I don't know what I'm going to do, except probably hang out with Jon a bit. And do homework and maybe a bit of grocery shopping.