NYC will always be my first city love... but I have had, and will have, a long affair with a second city.
1994 (Fall) - During my sophomore year of college, I become friends with someone named James. James comes to hang out in my dorm room with several of his friends (they are all freshmen). They are all mostly obnoxious, especially one whose name I can't remember. He's kind of cute but he seems like an alcoholic and has a rude sense of humor. I am not amused.
1994 (Fall) - My friend Maureen and I are in the same history class as that obnoxious freshman. I still can't remember his first name (especially since the professor calls us all by our last names) but he sits in front of me all semester and I happily rest my feet on his chair. He never takes a single note in class and always finishes every test and exam first and earns an A. I take copious notes and study but can't seem to get anything but a D (I proceed to drop my history minor).
1995 (Fall) - I become better friends with Sue, who is friends with the formerly obnoxious freshman (who is now neither obnoxious nor a freshman). It's the first weekend of school after classes start and he's having a party in his dorm room. I desperately want to go but am too shy to go alone so I beg Sue to come with me. She does, we have a great time, and a long history begins. I also finally remember that his name is Mike.
1995 - 1996 - Mike and I instantly become best friends, nearly instantly inseparable. I learn so much from him about how to enjoy life, about Judaism, about friendship, loyalty, and honesty.
1996 (February) - Mike brings a friend and I to his parents' house for a weekend. They live outside Baltimore and we spent the whole weekend hanging out at some of Mike's favorite hometown places. I am hooked.
1996 (summer) - I spend the 4th of July weekend with Mike; a tradition is born.
1996 (summer) - I throw my 21st birthday party in Maryland. I gather up all my local friends and truck them down to Baltimore where we pull an all-nighter and I walk with Mike to get bagels at sunrise. Best birthday ever. I am not sure at this point if I can afford going back to college in a few weeks, so I cry heavily when I leave.
1997 (January) - After barely completing the fall semester, I am forced to drop out of school due to loss of financial aid (which is due to low grades). I am heartbroken and cry every day for two months (I counted and kept track). I go back to the college to visit Mike and Sue nearly every other weekend. I also go to Baltimore with Mike.
1997 (summer) - I spend almost every third weekend in Baltimore. It's my escape. I feel like it's the only place I can exhale fully.
1998 (spring) - Mike graduates college. Following this, I visit him in Baltimore every 4-6 weeks, like clockwork. It truly is my home away from home and his parents are like my second parents.
1998 - 2001 - I still visit Baltimore every 4-6 weeks. I feel like it helps keep me sane (or at least tone down the insanity). I walk into Mike's apartment, exhale, and relax - giving myself up to the state of Maryland for 48 full hours. I don't check email; I don't check my answering machine. I don't care about anything but just being.
2000 - I throw my 25th birthday party at Mike's apartment. The cops show up. People still talk about the party, especially the part where I had to be told I probably shouldn't inform the cops that they have the wrong location because the Krispy Kreme is down the street. (I have a huge amount of respect for cops... I just had a few too many white Russians at that point.)
2002 - 2005 - I go back to college at night and have less free time so my visits become less frequent and sometimes I have to bring work with me. At one point the visits become so infrequent that Mike and I nearly have a falling out, but all is patched up by a day trip and dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant.
2004 - I go to France for a writing workshop instead of Baltimore for the 4th of July. Mike is peeved (but deep down I know he understands). It's the only time I've missed celebrating the 4th of July with him. He is the only other person I know who is as patriotic as me and gets chills when he hears the national anthem (I also usually cry). Our political views are quite opposite from each other, but we both have a fervent love for our country.
2005 - I turn 30 and throw myself three birthday parties, one for each decade. The last of these is in Baltimore, on a glorious summer night where we crank the radio and dance barefoot to 80s Top 40.
2006 - I start grad school and even though I am two hours closer to Baltimore, the visits become even less frequent as nearly every weekend is spent on work or traveling back up to north Jersey for some obligation or other.
2007 - Mike gets married; I am his wife's (Tracy) maid-of-honor.
2008 - I finish grad school but still don't have the time or sometimes the money to go back to my Baltimore visitation schedule. I get married; Mike is my man-of-honor and an indispensable part of my wedding planning. The hubby and I drive to the Outer Banks for our honeymoon and stop in Baltimore for the night on the way home. Mike and Tracy tell us she's pregnant before they tell anyone else (other than their parents). My old college buddy, with whom I have done more drinking than I can fathom, is going to be a dad. I am overjoyed and jump up and down and squeal, but am also so overwhelmed at the thought.
2009 (t0day) - The hubby and I are heading to Baltimore to stay with Mike and Tracy for the weekend - probably the last time we will be able to stay there before the guest room becomes a nursery (Tracy is due in early July; I find it incredibly appropriate that Mike's first child is due near the 4th of July). My views on babies have changed since my sister had TJ, but this is a whole other world. My "other" life, my get-away, my best friend - they're all going to permanently change in a few months and I don't know what to make of this. Everything that IS Baltimore to me is going to change. Can we sit at J. Pauls drinking all day if the baby is with us? Who will the baby be with if we want to go out at night? Will we go out at night anymore? What will remain of my Baltimore life after July?
Yes, this baby has very little to do with me and I can't wait to welcome her into the world. Mike having a baby is almost like it will be when my brother becomes a father one day. I tear up just thinking about it. Outside my own family, there are few people I care about as much as I care about Mike. He is a world to me... and it's about to change.
Baltimore has always been an adventure for me and I can track my life based on my relationship with it. This weekend we write the last passage in one chapter and prepare for the next.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 1:46PM 
