Road Trip Continued...

After leaving Williamsburg I headed to see my friend Thomas who’s studying at Princeton where the prestigious few are paid to learn for a job (while simultaneously earning a masters at the Woodrow Wilson school). In D.C. (or as my dad calls it “Warshington D.C.”) I saw my first close friend who’s pregnant – weird how this marks a milestone of getting older. She clearly has been thinking about this for awhile (as seen by this pic. below of 8 pairs of baby shoes for a yet-to-be-born being). 

I then had the misfortune of ending up in Baltimore, which actually like it’s beer National Bohemian (Natty Bo), is not as bad as I thought. Also, going out for crabs is a pretty fun and worthwhile experience – although I was surprised to learn that the crabs in Baltimore were coming from Louisiana (maybe just the time of year?). There’s something kind of cool about a gritty place like Baltimore or Providence and the Baltimore Bay park at North Point is actually kind of nice. 

Pete at North Bay

After a fancy wine & cheese party in Brooklyn, karaoke in Korea town, and a quick visit to Time Square (which by the way looks like something out of Gattica; especially if you take the crazy/fancy Marriott Marquis optimizing elevators), I was ready to return home.

Seeing the people who I still keep in touch with and my newer friends in Boston I realize I’ve surrounded myself with a bunch of very colorful and interesting people. I wouldn’t choose the Mid-Atlantic as a normally exciting road trip, but given my time crunch and the people I wanted to see, I’d say I did pretty well. It's also cool to see how so many people at around 27 years of age are doing so many different things and at different places in our lives

and so it begins...

I recently quit my job to prepare for a new job in Uganda working for a start-up in renewable energy and income generating opportunities for folks living off the grid in rural areas in the country. More on http://fenixintl.com/ to come, but I have basically two weeks now to enjoy before leaving.

I think the first two days I was "unemployed" I just wrote sweatpants, like all day. That was all I could honestly think of and I'm not sure if friends were disappointed or in agreement about what you do in situations like this. It's funny, you wait 5 years for this moment, to be free, and then you don't know what to do with yourself. But really pretty quickly, I got slammed with reality and have been very busy - immunizations for Uganda, moving out of the co-op in Dorchester, selling and getting rid of way too much stuff that I've accumulated over the last 5 years (note to self: throw things away more often), cancelling credit cards and phone service, retirement planning from my 401K (I know boring, sorry), and planning a road trip and a ski trip.

So I am on phase one of my journey, the Road Trip. I am not crazy about the Mid-Atlantic having covered the area in sales for many years, but there are some great friends around here. My first stop (well really second after a short visit in Stamford, CT) is a visit with my buddy Titus in Williamsburg, NY - the hipster capital of the world (no not Titus, Williamsburg). While waiting for Titus to finish work (yes that's what the next two weeks will look like, waiting for friends to finish work), I went to this amazing vintage clothing store, which played sexy house music, and reacted very poorly to me asking if they ever bought clothing from people (I am travelling with boxes of stuff I need to get rid of). I then went to the darkest cafe I've ever been too - everyone was literally rubbing their blurry eyes in the dark as the Fleet Foxes played in the background. After a bar (with My Morning Jacket or some other hipster group - this is what you hear literally in every establishment in town), several razor clams at an amazing and surprisingly affordable and good steak house, and a few drinks later, my hipster experience was complete (although probably there are a few things I could have added with some more time). Next stop: Princeton, NJ!

grilled delicious razor clams