Mega-Update!

For those of you who are still hanging around here, yes I am still alive. I haven't had the inclination to blog about anything much in a long time - maybe all my creative juices have finally leaked out.



So Baltimore is indeed a fine place - if you're some kind of mugger or crack-whore. The university itself is nice and expensive looking, with big white columns on most of the buildings - just to emphasise how well-to-do you must be to attend. The people Im working with are also pretty cool I have to say, and I have made a few friends, which has made the time here all the more bareable. The city itself is another matter. For example, one of the students who was here was driving his scooter, when a gang of kids tried to pull him off the bike by his packpack, while he was stopped at a traffic light, and at the same time another gang of kids were trying to hijack a moving car by attempting to smash the windows in with half a tree trunk. Also one of the girls got mugged by someone with a gun the day she arrived, and another student from the university was mugged just outside the grounds in the early afternoon. The local paper has quite a jovial column on the number of homicides that are commited each week. Currently I think the count is around 20 or so, from the time Ive been here - although the paper only includes deaths by gunshot. So you see, the city does have a really good sense of community.








Actually, around where Im staying isnt so bad, but you cant walk a block east or west, without feeling extremely intimidated, and its far too dangerous to walk into town or anything, which kind of limits the possibilities of what one can do with one's time. Luckily, the work load is ridiculous - hence me being the only person in the lab at 8pm, and any time off is usually spent hanging around in someone else's apartment, which leaves me less time to get homesick, which is a very good thing.



So what have I done since Ive been here....well not a hell of a lot really. Went to Ann Arbor in the second week to give a paper at a conference, which was truly horrific. The hotel I was staying in was 5 miles from the city centre. At my talk I basically got told that the research Id done was a load of shit, by a complete asshole, from Microsoft nonetheless. And having no company or colleagues to back me up it really was a deer-in-the-headlights moment. I just got the fuck out of there as quickly as I could and off to the only gay bar in the town. It was a nice enough spot and I had a drink outdoors. When leaving, some guy who'd been hanging around the bar attempted to cruise me, and when he saw me getting into the taxi that I had rang from the bar, he gestured suggestively at me and made it clear that he had money to pay me for my..err...'company'. So what a fantastic day that was - to be called a failure and a prostitute, who could ask for anything more. The taxi man, being a fellow pink-player then suggested I go out and have some fun for the night, despite the fact I told him I had a boyfriend. Its nice to see Michigan has morals!



Another weekend I went up to New York City, getting a free lift from someone here. I met up with a few friends on J1. We attempted to go out Saturday night to some gay club, which I was really looking forward to, as, up to then, my social life had been somewhat lacking. However, a bottle and a half of wine later and I was in absolutely no condition to go anywhere. I think I got as far as Manhattan before I had to be taken back to their apartment in Queens, aparantly falling on some innocent woman on the subway along the way, who thought I was attacking her. I passed out back in the apartment and had an extremely unpleasant journey back to Baltimore the following day. The thing is, I didnt even drink that much, but it was just a mixture of the heat and the fact I hadnt eaten dinner that day. Oh well.



So since then Ive just been surviving the swealtering heat and never-ending, completely unsatisfying, work. I have been out a few times, including a local arts festival which was pretty cool, and one or two nights on the town, including a trip to the Baja Beach Club, which was full of topless guys (yumm) and sleazy older drunkards molesting the closest innocent Baltimorian female (not so yumm) - it brought back so many fond memories of Copperface Jack's (although, it must be noted, I have only been there once and after being confronted with a huge turd in men's urinals, I vowed never to return again - its just not that kind of action I was after).



Ive only around two and half weeks here before I head to New York for a week of fun and frolicks with the boyf who's flying over. I can't fucking wait!