awesome weekend!
this weekend was amazing, so much going on. friday johnny and calin got to the house around 5:30. haven't seen either one of them since june 2006, but it's cool how after that much time all that physically changes really is the hair lol. johnny's hair is no longer black like it was when he lived here, it's fairly short and it's his natural color (dirty blonde) and calin's hair got really really long. i greeted johnny with a huge hug and they got their things ready for their stay in my basement.
spent the few hours before the party catching up and started drinking pretty early. luke and his girlfriend sarah arrived before the party started too. that was my first time meeting her and i like her a lot, much better than most past girlfriends. sam (johnny's cousin) also got here pretty early, because he knew that he had to leave early-ish. he took off the whole week, planning to first go visit some friends in kentucky (he lived there for a year prob about 2 years ago), then he and johnny would drive to florida tuesday. lots of people showed up to the party, plenty of which i did not even know lol. but it was fun, i don't mind new people as long as they don't fuck shit up! we have gone to bed at around 4 or 5 in the morning every day he's been here.
saturday johnny, calin, and i went to luke's house early in the day while richie stayed behind to recuperate and hang out with his cousin. we went to cracker barrel for breakfast/lunch, then went to baltimore to see the sights johnny hasn't seen in so long. luke and sarah have 2 black kittens now, they're brothers, and they're absolutely adorable. we got to play with them in between waiting for everyone to get ready. went to fell's point then decided to walk around the entire area. we walked to the harbor from there, then to the top of federal hill. i think i need to start regularly doing that, it's nice to really get to appreciate your own city. the weather was perfect. it was hot but it still felt nice.
next we were going to go to a pool party at abc pools that someone paul knew was throwing, but it got too late and we missed it. calin had to go back to new jersey where he lives so he ended up leaving around 11. then we met up with allen and his wife amber. johnny worked with allen at geeks on call and they had a web comic together when he lived here. tried to go to bill bateman's but they were closed already (it wasn't even 1:00 yet on a saturday wtf!) so we just got some drinks and hung out at my house. stayed up late again, got into some pretty deep conversations. johnny and richie bonded over their experiences with the death of someone close to you (shayne, and richie's dad). i'm really glad that they got to know each other so well and become close while johnny was here, it's really important to me.
sunday around noon met up with allen and amber again. amber wasn't feeling well so she didn't feel like getting food, but we went to a nice italian place that i've never been to. afterwards invited everyone over my house again, allen had to write a paper for school. johnny wanted to try to spend as much time with all of his friends as possible, so the idea was to do only things that involved being social and invite everyone. katie, paul, and luke came over. we hung out for several hours until they decided to go out for crabs. richie and i didn't wanna do that so we just stayed behind and caught up on sleep.
monday everyone else was at work, so johnny and i got some one-on-one time which was great. wanted to do something outside, so we decided to go to the zoo. there's still a lot of stuff closed there, and stuff they're working on, but we had a good time. there were a few zookeepers out talking about the animals and answering questions, which i've never seen before. one was feeding a giraffe, it was very cute. we made friends with an arctic fox, and communicated with geese. had a lot of good conversation about life in general, relationship stuff, exactly what i missed about him being around here on a daily basis. went to panera for lunch. i was so happy to discover that they offer apples instead of chips there! little things like that make me so happy, or rather make my digestive tract happy. got to talk about all the stresses i've recently dealt with, it's nice to vent. it's also nice to be able to talk about stresses being in the past! talking to him always makes me feel better about anything though. he has a nice way of reassuring you that you did the right thing and that you'll be ok.
monday night we (me, richie, johnny, luke, paul, kristin, and katie) went to a bar in fell's point called the wharf rat. kristin regularly goes there and recommended it because there's not many other people in there on monday nights. we had a great time, took some pictures. some of which are on my camera, some are on kristin's. came back to the house and took a few bong hits, which totally put me over the top. luke was already really drunk and ended up in the bathroom for an hour, somehow reassuring us that he was totally fine the entire time. usually when someone is really drunk they don't sound like he did, his voice was normal as could be, most drunk people slur their words, not him. but he ended up passed out in heather's room, and had to be up for work at 6:30am the next day. i'm sure he got NO sleep, that had to be at least 3 by the time that happened. johnny ended up getting stuck in an hour long conversation with katie outside where she brought up some shit from the past he didn't wanna talk about, but that's all he told me about it and that's all i asked. pretty sure she's not over him.
tuesday johnny had to leave at 3. we weren't sure what was going to happen up until monday, because sam's car broke down while in kentucky and he wasn't sure how long it would take to get it fixed. he told him he would either be here or buy him a bus ticket to florida if he couldn't do that. well he ended up buying him a bus ticket. i'm sure it wasn't nearly as fun as driving to florida with your cousin, but it got the job done. i drove him to the greyhound station around 2, cause you're supposed to get there a little early to pick up the ticket. gave him a big hug and that was it. he reminded me he'll see me in few weeks when he comes back through after florida, which kept me from crying. every time he leaves it gets a little easier to see him go because i know that despite the time and distance that we still have our friendship. but it's still so hard to spend so much time with someone you care about, and then nothing.
we'll just have to be better about keeping in touch. he said now that he's making good money he'll come back once a year for another trip like this. in europe they have "vacation month" which is august, where a good bit of the jobs shut down and everyone goes on vacation. i learned so much about his experiences living as a foreigner in another country, what it's like to learn a language that way, and all the difficulties he's overcome in order to get where he wants to. he's inspirational to me in that way because he's shown me that if he can overcome all of that to do what he needs to do, that my daily bumps in the road can be handled better, and i too can overcome anything with determination.
spent the few hours before the party catching up and started drinking pretty early. luke and his girlfriend sarah arrived before the party started too. that was my first time meeting her and i like her a lot, much better than most past girlfriends. sam (johnny's cousin) also got here pretty early, because he knew that he had to leave early-ish. he took off the whole week, planning to first go visit some friends in kentucky (he lived there for a year prob about 2 years ago), then he and johnny would drive to florida tuesday. lots of people showed up to the party, plenty of which i did not even know lol. but it was fun, i don't mind new people as long as they don't fuck shit up! we have gone to bed at around 4 or 5 in the morning every day he's been here.
saturday johnny, calin, and i went to luke's house early in the day while richie stayed behind to recuperate and hang out with his cousin. we went to cracker barrel for breakfast/lunch, then went to baltimore to see the sights johnny hasn't seen in so long. luke and sarah have 2 black kittens now, they're brothers, and they're absolutely adorable. we got to play with them in between waiting for everyone to get ready. went to fell's point then decided to walk around the entire area. we walked to the harbor from there, then to the top of federal hill. i think i need to start regularly doing that, it's nice to really get to appreciate your own city. the weather was perfect. it was hot but it still felt nice.
next we were going to go to a pool party at abc pools that someone paul knew was throwing, but it got too late and we missed it. calin had to go back to new jersey where he lives so he ended up leaving around 11. then we met up with allen and his wife amber. johnny worked with allen at geeks on call and they had a web comic together when he lived here. tried to go to bill bateman's but they were closed already (it wasn't even 1:00 yet on a saturday wtf!) so we just got some drinks and hung out at my house. stayed up late again, got into some pretty deep conversations. johnny and richie bonded over their experiences with the death of someone close to you (shayne, and richie's dad). i'm really glad that they got to know each other so well and become close while johnny was here, it's really important to me.
sunday around noon met up with allen and amber again. amber wasn't feeling well so she didn't feel like getting food, but we went to a nice italian place that i've never been to. afterwards invited everyone over my house again, allen had to write a paper for school. johnny wanted to try to spend as much time with all of his friends as possible, so the idea was to do only things that involved being social and invite everyone. katie, paul, and luke came over. we hung out for several hours until they decided to go out for crabs. richie and i didn't wanna do that so we just stayed behind and caught up on sleep.
monday everyone else was at work, so johnny and i got some one-on-one time which was great. wanted to do something outside, so we decided to go to the zoo. there's still a lot of stuff closed there, and stuff they're working on, but we had a good time. there were a few zookeepers out talking about the animals and answering questions, which i've never seen before. one was feeding a giraffe, it was very cute. we made friends with an arctic fox, and communicated with geese. had a lot of good conversation about life in general, relationship stuff, exactly what i missed about him being around here on a daily basis. went to panera for lunch. i was so happy to discover that they offer apples instead of chips there! little things like that make me so happy, or rather make my digestive tract happy. got to talk about all the stresses i've recently dealt with, it's nice to vent. it's also nice to be able to talk about stresses being in the past! talking to him always makes me feel better about anything though. he has a nice way of reassuring you that you did the right thing and that you'll be ok.
monday night we (me, richie, johnny, luke, paul, kristin, and katie) went to a bar in fell's point called the wharf rat. kristin regularly goes there and recommended it because there's not many other people in there on monday nights. we had a great time, took some pictures. some of which are on my camera, some are on kristin's. came back to the house and took a few bong hits, which totally put me over the top. luke was already really drunk and ended up in the bathroom for an hour, somehow reassuring us that he was totally fine the entire time. usually when someone is really drunk they don't sound like he did, his voice was normal as could be, most drunk people slur their words, not him. but he ended up passed out in heather's room, and had to be up for work at 6:30am the next day. i'm sure he got NO sleep, that had to be at least 3 by the time that happened. johnny ended up getting stuck in an hour long conversation with katie outside where she brought up some shit from the past he didn't wanna talk about, but that's all he told me about it and that's all i asked. pretty sure she's not over him.
tuesday johnny had to leave at 3. we weren't sure what was going to happen up until monday, because sam's car broke down while in kentucky and he wasn't sure how long it would take to get it fixed. he told him he would either be here or buy him a bus ticket to florida if he couldn't do that. well he ended up buying him a bus ticket. i'm sure it wasn't nearly as fun as driving to florida with your cousin, but it got the job done. i drove him to the greyhound station around 2, cause you're supposed to get there a little early to pick up the ticket. gave him a big hug and that was it. he reminded me he'll see me in few weeks when he comes back through after florida, which kept me from crying. every time he leaves it gets a little easier to see him go because i know that despite the time and distance that we still have our friendship. but it's still so hard to spend so much time with someone you care about, and then nothing.
we'll just have to be better about keeping in touch. he said now that he's making good money he'll come back once a year for another trip like this. in europe they have "vacation month" which is august, where a good bit of the jobs shut down and everyone goes on vacation. i learned so much about his experiences living as a foreigner in another country, what it's like to learn a language that way, and all the difficulties he's overcome in order to get where he wants to. he's inspirational to me in that way because he's shown me that if he can overcome all of that to do what he needs to do, that my daily bumps in the road can be handled better, and i too can overcome anything with determination.