Baltimore!

Oh its so good to be back!!

I've been back for about a week now and I've seen so many people and have been basking in the joy of having people to talk to and seeing people I care about. I'm in the Panera I use to work in and all the workers that were here when I was remember me. Brian is the manager on duty and he said hello. I had a fairly extensive talk with Alexandra though it was broken between Spanish and English, she's always so happy and wonderful to talk to. I also talked to Alejandro and Yenira, Alejandro is from Ecuador so he's been loving this weather, though I think he's nuts. Its been in the upper 90s and VERY humid. Its like living in a sauna!

Last week, the day after I got here, Joel and I went up to Timonium to pick up my bike. Its beautiful! Its a Marin Larkspur hybrid 24 speed bike, very smooth. Well, on our way back to Baltimore the lightrail was down over the longest stretch between stops but we decided to bike to the next stop anyway. Halfway there we stopped in at Barnes and Noble to figure out how to get to the Falls Road station. I will also mention that in the last seven years I've biked five times and it was raining as well. By the time we figured out where we were going and had rested up enough, night had fallen and we road to the Falls Road station. We managed to get almost all the way there before I fell off my bike and make seven or more large bruises on my legs. I was coming to a stop but then decided to continue going and when I turned onto the sidewalk (Falls road is intimidating to those of us who are amateur riders) which had a concrete wall sticking out, I lost control and fell off, and messed up my brand new bike a bit. It now has a scar across the name, Joel had to readjust my brakes and my chain had fallen off (very minor, which was able to be fixed once we sat down at the station). I got away without a drop of blood spilled. Just bruises. :0)

Then Saturday I went out with Joel to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity, where he works. That was the first day of the heatwave. It was pretty miserable weather-wise but other than that it was really cool to see where he works and be able to be a part of it too. His house was being dedicated, his roommate Jess was also having a house dedication that day too, which was cool. So after getting home, Joel went to REI to work that night and then Patty came to pick me and Jess up to go to a benefit concert (Hard Hitting Music for Hard Hit People) which was a lot of fun. Then we dropped Jess off, picked Joel up and went to Patty's house that night to stay over and go to church with her in the morning.

Church was wonderful, it was so grand to see all of those people again. Coming back to such a warm and welcoming community was so good, such a blessing! I love all of them so much! Everyone seemed so happy to see me and joy was bubbling to overflowing inside of me. Having such a loving community like that is the most amazing thing ever. I just can't put it into words what they mean to me. After church a handful of us went out to pizza at Ledo's, which was delicious. Jess came to church and lunch with us too, which was cool.

I am so ecstatic to be back here, even the horrid weather isn't able to get me down. To everyone of my friends in and around Baltimore: I love you!