Friends of Mine

I had a super fun Friday and it almost convinced me I might start liking Baltimore. Whaaa?

I clocked out a little before 4 and took a cab downtown to see A Single Man with some of my gay friends, spearheaded by my friend John. John is an environmental chemist I met by Facebook stalking after reading his bio on an EPA website last year (his project caught my eye and so I sent him a "wow, your stuff sounds amazing" fb message, and it took off from there). He studies environmental chemistry, specifically how to destroy agricultural pollution once it's gotten into the environment. We have kind of an older/younger sibling dynamic and it's nice to have a "gay older brother" type friend who can give me tips on surviving here, and who introduces me to gay guys who he thinks are quality (I am generally not as enthusiastic about them as he is, but they're definitely a step up from the randos you'd find in the local bars). It's also nice to have a circle of friends from outside school to hang out with. My early social life in Baltimore consisted almost entirely of board game nights at John's house.

The "Single Man" outing was organized by John and included his boyfriend, his roommate, and a guy they're clearly trying to set me up with. The guy just graduated from Hopkins undergrad focusing on Public Health, and is now doing nonprofit/think tank work on Health Policy Economics. This is the second thing John's invited both of us to this week; the first was a double-date ish dinner with John and Mark. I don't think there's any interest on either side (there *definitely* is no interest from me in him), but it's sort of sweet of John to try to play matchmaker. Sort of sweet and sort of annoying. Oh well.

After the movies with John et al., I went out to sushi with some of my Epidemiology department friends. The sushi bar was very hip and played dance hall music (techno, R&B) while serving pretty awesome sushi and pretty cheap liquor. I had a cosmo, two kirins, sake, and I think that's all but I kind of don't remember. I was pretty hammered. Then we went out and bar-hopped some more, and at one point I added "strawberry margarita" to the list. I vaguely remember dancing with strangers (girls) in the second bar, who had been sitting at the bar until I was like "Hey come dance with me!" This bar was not a dancing venue; we were basically the only ones dancing, and I fell a couple times (and broke my phone, unfortunately). Then we all went back to Kari's house and watched extreme winter sports (snowmobile flip things, snowboarding, skiing) on TV until people left. I was way too drunk to go anywhere so I crashed here for the night. I'm still waiting for Kari to wake up, but surprisingly I don't have a hangover. I think it was the Shirley Temple I had in the last bar?

So...yeah. Kind of a ridiculously fun night, and in Baltimore of all places. Unfortunately, it was with friends who will all be gone soon. John's finishing his PhD this year, and the kids I went out for sushi/drinks with are all Masters students who will finish next year.

My friends who are going to be here longer-term with me fall into two groups: government-employed friends in DC, and friends in PhD programs at Hopkins. I don't know what I'm going to do after next year when my friends disperse. I think DC would make me a lot happier than Baltimore, but the commute is almost an hour each way (maybe less if I take a train + bus) and I don't know how long my friends in DC who aren't in government jobs plan to stay in their current careers. It would suck to move out to DC and have all my best friends (who tend to have shorter-term/internship jobs in nonprofits) leave shortly afterward. Maybe I should just suck it up and move to DC while my good friends are still there and can introduce me to people.