January 2002

We Live in a Cool Neighborhood, Too

We live in a cool neighborhood.

We live half a block from a pizza joint open until 3am.

We live half a block from our favorite bar, and there are over a dozen bars in a two block radius if we need a change.

Our favorite bar sells Natty-Boh for a buck fifty. It has a cool juke box and two pinball machines. You have the option of finding either the bartender with an unending collection of Hawaiian shirts or the flamboyant "Twist your arm?" charmer. The gin and tonics there are wonderful! (And the food is fresh and plentiful, too.)

Our neighborhood has very little crime. We used to have transvestite hookers, but they are working another neighborhood now. Even with them, we never complained.

We can walk to two grocery stores that are just about a block from our apartment. Well, one grocery store and one odd store with a menagerie of groceries, bulk chopsticks, organic beer, shin-level Skin, assorted liquor, and MSG. It's one stop shopping city style!

A hip new night club opened a block from our apartment in the same month that another bar closed. We are never lacking for bar stool space.

Two blocks away is a welcoming grassy square with four equal promenades jutting out from its sides. We can climb up the inside of the monument in the center and feel power of the wind from high above it all. Or we can sit calmly beside a fountain below.

The Afghan restaurant only a block away serves super food. They are across from an ass kickin' Indian restaurant. And upstairs from them is a natural foods store.

We can walk only five blocks to the train station. We can go anywhere from there.

We can get to the airport and back without driving or using silly airport "limo" service.

Our street cuts across the two main streets in Baltimore, St. Paul Street (southbound) and Charles Street (northbound). Charles Street is jumping. But St. Paul Street is for slow strolls that allow for wide-eyed admiration of architecture.

On Friday nights, from 6-8pm, a coffee shop a couple blocks from home has free jazz. The jazz is great, and a great way to start a weekend. They also have good snacks and sandwiches there.

We have a independent video rental and used book store a few blocks away. We don't need a Blockbuster card.

We have a cheese shop two blocks away. Yes, you heard it right, a gourmet cheese shop. Cheeses you've never even heard of are always within my grasp.

We have to walk many blocks before finding fast food. But very few to find fair trade organic coffee.

We sleep together in our apartment. That is the best thing about the neighborhood.

Oh yeah, the home made soup is ready! Gotta go!