DC and Baltimore Trip

This weekend I ventured down to DC and Baltimore on the Chinatown bus to visit two friends that I met on my freshmen hall at Bucknell. First I went to DC to visit Aimee. Friday night we went to a very nice Lebanese restaurant with exceptional food. Afterwards we did a little domestic shopping, where I picked up a new door mat (that I later had to cart awkwardly around during my travels) and finally found a toilet paper ring that would fit into the fixtures in my bathroom. I was never happier to spend $6. I later got to see all of her amazing pictures from her year abroad in Africa and we watched our favorite movie, "Legends of the Fall" for give or take, oh I don't know, the 57th time? Who knows. The next morning we headed to the gym and Aimee made me a fantastic brunch before dropping me off with Eric in Baltimore. Eric and I went on a nice walk in his new neighborhood past a women's academy and through a very run-down, yet somehow endearing, graveyard. Afterwards Eric, his roommate Adam and I had dinner and waited for the house-warming party guests. Attendees included, among others, Steve Miller, John Mayer, and a very-talented young man named Michael who solved a Rubik's Cube in approximately 25 seconds right in front of me (his PR is 16 seconds!). He continued to amaze the guests all night with various amusing parlor tricks. Matias and Steph Bango, two former teammates at Bucknell, were also at the party. It was great to catch up with them and hear about other friends that they live near. I was lucky enough to spend the night on the most comfortable suedo-suede futon in history. This morning Eric, Adam and I went to church where we met up with Eric's friends Tim, Jo and John. Eric informed me ahead of time that we would be attending a "Super Church." Man, he wasn't kidding. The place had padded, individual seats (no more aching tailbones from those hard, wooden pews), seating for a few thousand people, a full ensemble band with 5+ singers and a screen on which the entire service was conducted by Powerpoint presentation. It was a unique experience. After a quick lunch, Eric and Adam dropped me off at the bus stop and voila! four hours later, I was back at home. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. I hope that my guests will be able to come up to NYC at some point in the near future so I can return the favor. In addition to the aforementioned, particular highlights of the trip included: a very scary picture of me rolling out of bed senior year that Aimee intends to keep for blackmail purposes, pomegranate seeds, a long-anticipated back massage, bruce springsteen, generic cool-whip, strawberry wafers, Babyland, tangy sweedish meatballs, a ridiculous collection of orange-flavored beverages, pink kitchen lights, the forgotten skillet (or frying pan), jumping toothpicks, Matias' ecstatic response to the jumping toothpicks, Eric's amazement at my memorization skills, and finally the gut-wrenchingly grotesque smell of the Chinatown bus bathroom that I had the great pleasure of laughing about with two fellow passengers. At some point I'll get around to sharing all of the pictures and video.