Project 365: March 11th: Best Week Ever Part II

March is gearing up with social events.  As the weather becomes brighter and welcoming, out come the deviants!

Josh @Lansdowne.  Ben in background.

This week can be summed up with two words: skating and partying.  I told Josh I wanted to learn how to skateboard.  Again.  It's been 20 years since I've tried to balance myself on a board.  He was skeptical, with good reason (I have, like, a million hobbies I only fractionally dedicate any time to).  So this week we went out a handful of times.  Here was coach Baker's schedule, when weather permitted:

Day One: Neighborhood
Day Two: Neighborhood
Day Three: Industrial park loading dock ramp
Day Four: Lansdowne

Lansdowne happened to coincide with our friend's bachelor party: a day of reveling that started with skateboarding.  But don't you love Josh?  He's like, GET OUT AND SKATE!  GET SOME!!

Ok, so this week:

March 11, Tuesday
Could not stop watching this video.  I've dubbed it kiss porn and is currently my favorite type of porn:

GET SOME

March 12, Wednesday
Finally started walking after work w/a coworker.  We've been talking about this for months, but weather and health conditions postponed the start date.  Now we're on it!!

March 13, Thursday
A windy and sunny skate session part three at industrial airpark.

skate day three for lil' Annie

Josh: "That's called a 'bail.'"

why so serious?

see ya!

March 14, Friday
Skype session with my bro where he confesses an apology for being a dick to me in middle school.  This year has been rife with soul-purging and verbal vomit (among a variety of players in my life).  I love it!  A sign of healing and maturity?  We'll see how we all feel in another 20 years.

March 15, Saturday.  
The Ides of March are fucking awesome.  
Ben's party.  
Lansdowne:  you can't skate without pads.  Josh only has one set of elbow and knee pads, and the pad patrol/pad nanny guy won't let me in without them, so I piddle around the parking lot while Josh skates (where it is recommended one skate with pads, but is not required).  

This is fine with me, as I am waiting for Ben and company to arrive.  I go back and forth, getting comfortable on my board for my skate day number four.  Lalala... and then:  BUMP!  My wheel or truck hits a rock and my board goes flying; I slip and fall on the parking lot blacktop, right on my thick left hip.  I go bouncing!  It hurts immediately, but I've gotta pretend it's not a big deal b/cs I'm a grown woman, damnit, and I've got to act like no one saw me do it.  I jump up, run after my board, hop back on it.  I feel the throb of the impact, that fucking pulse of pain with every heartbeat, but am thankful I didn't fall on my keys, or on the smashed glass bottle a few feet away. 

I told Josh the moment I got hurt I'd probably 'focus' my board and quit right there.  I'm kind of surprised this didn't happen; I really felt like just brushing it off.  Maybe b/cs I felt like I got hurt for doing nothing... Just you wait until I break something.  Then I'm done.

veggie graffiti

Josh

Doug

Borrowed Josh's pads to get in the park.
That lil' hump thing: that was a big deal for me.  Please remember this is my fourth day on a skateboard.  Applause welcome.

Mushroom ballsacking

watch Ben land this

hooray!

come out and plaaay-eeeyaayyy

riding concrete waves

at the Downs

Next on the agenda:  Hampden; Celebrated Summer Records; sneaky snacks.
This got a little derailed.  A few out-of-town friends went to check in at their hotel and a few of us got to Hampden early.  We went to peek the Skatepark of Baltimore bowl.  Then we were too hungry to wait for Johnny Rad's Pizza @ 8:30, so we ducked into Golden West for a snack.  Well, Doug got a burrito and we got fries.  And then we got found out and everyone ended up meeting us at the Golden West bar.  Aaaannnd we sort of pre-gamed before dinner.  I ordered two Thai iced teas to ensure maximum caffeination and sugar high throughout the evening.  Note:  this totally worked.

Golden West Bar

Ben's hard-earned "ice cream-scooping" muscles

Alex and Anne March 2014

Alex and Ben Summer 1996.  Killing time in Annapolis/Arnold, right after a Suspects/Goons show at the Loft.  I don't think the Suspects showed up.  

Anne and Alex May 1997 Senior Prom
(way disgustingly young, naive, and gorgeous)

Alex DiMattesa paid me one of the highest compliments I've ever received, basically blaming Ben and me for his current lifestyle, his punk rock origins.  He runs one of the "largest distros you're likely to find," according to PunkNews.  And while he is certainly not getting rich off records, I admire him greatly for doing what he enjoys and having the discipline, dedication, and where-with-all to pursue his pleasure as a career.  So jelly.

[Disclosure and time travel note:  Alex was one of my best friends in high school, where punk was not a popular extra-curricular activity.  We never dated, but during junior year after my first Rancid concert and then after a massively fun New Year's Eve adventure, I really wanted to.  It never happened (maybe for the best), and then we went to University of Maryland together.  Alex was hell-bent on absorbing the College Park punk and hardcore scene.  I was much shyer.  I do not feel I was as much of a social butterly those first weeks at college, believe it or not.  It was nice to have a social captain in Alex while I was getting the feel for college life.]

Back to the party.  Next up:  Johnny Rad's
Johnny Rad's is a skate-themed pizza joint off Eastern Avenue.  Being HarCo n00bs, Josh and I didn't understand the shitty parking of a Saturday night in ... in, what is that? the Patterson Park/Canton area?  Regardless, it was stupid.  We found parking ridiculously far away, up a hill.  If you don't walk or bike around Baltimore much, you may not appreciate how steep and hilly the terrain is.  (I found this out one unfortunate day hiking from Little Italy to the Inner Harbor to Pratt Free Library.  Pretty much anything north of the water is up,up,up a hill.)
Annnnyway, I wasn't sure what Johnny Rad's would be like.  Would it be a neat environment with mediocre food?  Thankfully, it was a neat place, with skeeball and video games, plus yummy, YUMMY pizza.  Hooray!!  (I ordered the El Gato, a simple white pizza, but SO GOOD.  Like, my mouth is watering from memory-of-this-pizza-as-I-type-this good.)

Burgertime @the pizza place

Merriment and good times ensue.  Video games are crushed.  Skeeball is cheated; criticism of my weird toss-from-the-elbow technique is noted.  Trips down memory lane are strolled.  Kempton regales a story of how I was mean and cryptic to him in high school about a question he persistently had about my car:
K:  What is that white patch on your car?
Me:  Don't worry about it.
K:  No, seriously, just tell me.  Why is it there?
Me:  Shut your face, Kempton.  Shut your pie-holed face.

I love hearing other people's memories of me.  While I pride myself on having a relatively good memory, it is selective.  Why was I such a bitch?  What was that patch on my car?  I don't remember it myself.  And why was I so mean about it?  Jesus, the questions are limitless.  The anti-climatic answer is probably my dad did some weird thing to the car and I was embarrassed about it.  End of story.  So there.  You can finally shut that hole, Kempton.  No real resolution for you!

I regale how I used Kempton as a decoy/smoke screen diversion to thwart an unwanted teenaged New Year's Eve kiss.  Always the bridesmaid, he says.

[Time travel:  Excerpt from journal, February 3, 1996
... -- was harassing me.  I later find out he was drunk.  Bleah.  He kept requesting a New Year's kiss.  Request denied.  Tried to get all my friends to save me.  Kempton did the best job.  Later we drop Eddie off and walk down Main St.  Drunk men and women are fighting outside of Acme.  Guys are steppin!  Alex and Ben hang around to see if any real action'll take place.  It never does, but Mariah gets picked up by this really cute, but pimpy/preppy looking 20-something.  Pretty funny and lame.  Meggan and her hang with said pimp and his friend until 3 in the morn.  Christine, Jacob, and Julie, and Mary steal stars and poles from various downtown locations.  It was quite a night.  At one point, Alex and I were walking up a street and a man sitting on the sidewalk across the street with a chick said, "Happy New Year! OI!"
It was cool. ..."]

And then shit got real: off to The Ottobar for Punk Rock Karaoke Night!

Of course I started getting lazy with my camera, and I totally should have taken more pictures!!!

We ran into a friend at the bar, a gaggle of witches (pointy black hats and all) were in attendance, as was a gorgeous bride, her groom, and their wedding party.  The groom got up and sang Fear's "I Love Livin' in the City" and killed it!  Tim and I did our best Danzig impressions for "Skulls" and "Where Eagles Dare", respectively.  

Oh, but before that we pressured Ben into singing Minor Threat's "I Don't Wanna Hear It", with our help until it turned into a bit of an on-stage hardcore pit, complete with Doug running up and jumping on my back and Josh telling me he thought I was going to start swinging into the crowd.  God, I love karaoke.    

I didn't even notice Doug's awesome sweatshirt motto until late into the evening:  Welcome to Baltimore...

Bonus!  We ran into Tim!

Merkins! 

it was starting to become that kind of night

Josh singing Agent Orange

me channeling my inner Danzig

cause "I ain't no goddamned son of a bitch!"

"you better think about it, baby!"

shortly after this photo was taken, I punched the photographer in the face.

WHAT A GREAT DAY!!!  I can't wait for the wedding!!

March 16, Sunday
Memorial service and family day.

Peep my next-day "hipper":

dat ass!  right?!

March 17, Monday
Snow again.  Work delay.  Yaay!!  

Whattaweek!

cause I Love Livin' in the City!