Finally.

Finally have a free moment before heading out to Manhattan so that I may actually attempt to catch my blog up. I can now promise that I will update more regularly...I didn't have internet at the hotel in Baltimore. I am so dependent on the internet that it's sick. Seriously.

Induction.
I got to Baltimore on Monday after leaving Williamstown bright and early. Okay, maybe not so bright and early...closer to 9 than to 6 like I had planned. I also got lost (again) and after spending so much time tweaking MapQuest directions to make sure that they didn't take me through New York city (AGAIN), I found myself in New York City. During rush hour. Suffice to say, I got to Baltimore a wee bit later than I had intended.

Like I mentioned before, I listened to Life of Pi on CD this time. It was interesting, although not quite as good mindless driving material as Dave Sedaris. I didn't get to finish the book, and now I won't really have the opportunity until after July. The book was 11.5 hours long...I'm only on disc 4.

The actual induction was pretty good. At times, it seemed pretty disorganized, but the staff has a really hard job to do and we ended up getting through it all relatively painlessly. I love the other members of the corps. Everyone's great and happy to be here. Induction gave us some time to get to know each other and to basically bond as a corps before heading off to institute and joining up with New York, Miami, New Jersey, and D.C. corps. Baltimore is actually the smallest of the corps -- they accepted next to nobody at the second deadline -- with only 57 people. Compare this with New York that has over 350. I think this is a positive because now I know everyone in my corps, while people in the New York corps come up to me thinking that I'm in their region.

I'm loving Baltimore. Everything about it seems to be right up my alley -- rent is cheap, living is cheap, there's green stuff, but there are also some things to do at night. It's also so close to D.C. that I really can't complain. Did I mention that I'm officially on the Baltimore City School System's official payroll? Meaning, that regardless of what I teach (or if I teach at all at the beginning of the year), I will be getting a paycheck?? I officially am employed! By the time I finish my commitment in under two years, I'll be making closer to $43,000. Not too shabby.

Institute.
We got to New York yesterday evening. Not much exciting has happened since my last post...I'm all registered and ready to go. I'm meeting up with Jess later today -- which will provide some eye candy in a later post. Also, I got to see my wonderful Anne Louise who is working at institute this summer. I felt all special when she came over and gave me some lovin'. Be warned that there will be much more to report on Institute in the near future.

Adventure.
So I have an adventure to report. On Tuesday evening, I attempted to go drop some stuff off at a storage place. After dropping off my friends at the hotel, I ventured off to east Baltimore to get it done before our dinner meeting. I got kind of lost, but eventually found it. As I turned a corner, I hit a massive pothole and not one, but TWO of my tires blew out. I should tell you that my storage place is in a notoriously bad area of Baltimore. I was more than a little frightened.

The first thing I did was call AAA -- but found that I was no longer a member. Shit. I then called the parents, who assured me that I was still a member. Called back AAA and they assured me that I wasn't. It was eventually determined that I actually wasn't insured. It was at this point that the guy sleeping on the street by my dead car woke up came over and assessed that I had two flat tires and should call AAA. I then called Jamie and freaked out at him.

It was at this point that I realized that I should stop calling people since I was quickly using up my battery (AAA had put me on hold for a good long time in order to determine that I wasn't covered. I ventured into the storage place to ask for some yellow pages and call a towing company. Several phone calls later it was determined that everyone was either too far away, to busy, or very closed. I needed to have my car towed since I had TWO flat tires and only had one spare tire and could therefore NOT simply just change the tire. Not only that, but I needed to have it flat-bed towed.

Eventually I just renewed my AAA membership and they agreed to send over a tow truck and promised to take me to the nearest tire center. All good, except I realized that at this point it was past six and most tire centers would be closed. This proved to be true and eventually was able to find one place that would stay open until 8:30pm. Unfortunately it was over 20 miles away. That's expensive. Never mind, it was getting dark and I was still in a bad bad neighborhood -- I would take anything. Except that the tow truck showed up an hour late and eventually too late for the 8:30 place. Things were sucking.

I have to say that things could have sucked even more, except for the fact that everyone in Baltimore is incredibly nice. Random people walking by would stop to offer help or advice. Strangely enough, while all sorts of people were stopping by to offer their services, the police which went by frequently (I was across the street from the county jail) never once stopped to see what was wrong. I owe my life to the guy who ran the storage place (who incidentally, remembered my name on first seeing me despite the fact that I had seen him for about two minutes when I rented out the unit a month earlier). He let me move my car into his gated parking lot after hours and gave me the code to the gate so that I could exit later. He stayed after hours, and gave me his cell phone number if I needed anything. He checked up on me all the time from his apartment (across the street) and would wave at me from the window to make sure that I was okay. He called towing places for me and when the towing guy eventually did come, he spoke to the towing guy to make sure that he was legit. He told him to take good care of me and offered to drive me home after I had towed my car, and he wouldn't even take my money when I tried to give it to him.

The towing guy was great too. When he realized that we wouldn't make it to the tire place in time, he made a few phone calls and found a place that was open 24 hours and much closer. He also offered me some tips about good places to go dancing. The tire guy was really nice and we found out that his children are enrolled at one of the schools that I might be teaching at this fall.

So, while this could have been an awful experience, it actually gave me a chance to see what life is like and to talk to people in the parts of Baltimore that I might not have gone to otherwise...but I'm going to say for the record that blowing out TWO tires at once, blows.

Apartments.
Still don't know what's going on on that front. Jamie and I were about to sign the lease on our place in Greenbelt, but some recent complications arose on that same day so now it's on hold. But, I did find a great place in Baltimore (if the Jamie thing doesn't work out) that would cost $350 a month, is located in Charles Village (right by Johns Hopkins Homewood campus) with a parking space, and hardwood floors, and all sorts of other goodness. Man, I really like Baltimore.

Miscellany.
A friend of mine is taking on an interesting endeavor. I don't know how I feel about it -- I think it may be a little too thinly-veiled. But, funny and interesting nonetheless.