Today I’m grooving out to some old Bad Brains stuff I ripped years ago. I stopped over at Jen’s this morning to fix her air conditioner and pick up some stuff; then I drove to the house and parked in the driveway for a minute. Timing the drive at 9:30, I was able to make it to work in about 25 minutes, which is about the same amount of time it takes to get out of Canton to work, with less traffic.

I love Baltimore. I love the freaky ice cream truck outside my house at 7pm every night. I love driving three blocks further to find a parking spot at night. I love helicopters hovering over my house. I love the little woman who’s worn a housedress for the entire six years I’ve been on this block. I love thirteen year old boys walking pit bulls. I love twelve year old hoochie girls pushing baby carriages (and not for the reasons you think, you perv.) I love Formstone. I love hot asphalt in August. I love the smell of rain on pavement in the evening. I love my neighbors because they stoop when the sun is low and the air is cool. I love living right up on my neighbors and the fact that they check up on me. I love the kid on the two-stroke scooter that I can’t see in my rearview mirror. I love the rise in my heart rate when I walk home from my car late at night. I love the neighborhood bars and the people that are in them when I’m leaving for work in the morning. I love the good-looking Yuppies that surround me. I love the old-school Cantonites that still live here. I love marble steps, and the fact that I’ve owned a set. I love chicken-wire skylights. I love Highlandtown and Canton and Hampden and Pigtown and Bolton Hill. I love the alterno-kids that make me feel old when I go to bars to shoot pool. I love the bars that don’t exist any more where I used to drink—Tio Loco’s, Wroten’s, Miss Bonnie’s Elvis Shrine, and Lista’s (the top deck only.) I love the Harbor and everything about it. I love to see the old advertising signs fading on the brick throughout the city. I love motorcycles out in front of the Daily Grind. I love cobblestones under the tires of my bike. I love the shiny breasts on the statue outside Johns Hopkins university. I love all the apartments I’ve lived in throughout the city.

There’s a “Sold” sign on the steps outside my house this evening.