Feeling Out of Place

 This weekend has been a busy one for us.  We finally removed the rest of our belongings from the storage unit in Martinsburg, and the living room downstairs has a mess of bins that need to be organized now.  That work saved us about $80 monthly in storage fees, and I also wanted to give a shout-out to our parish over in Charles Town, St. James, and our wonderful priest there, Fr. Timothy Grassi.  They were gracious enough to loan us a large moving truck to get the rest of the stuff over here, and I am eternally grateful for that.  This also leads the way for an imminent move for us from Baltimore, and that cannot come soon enough.  The process of moving yesterday, for instance, led to an issue out on the street here with a certain demographic of people who live here - I won't get into that, but in all honesty, I am really wanting to go back to someplace where I feel more like I belong, as Baltimore as a city really stinks.  Let me explain what happened.

Since moving here back in late 2024, I have had more than my share of rude, nasty people in this city, and it unfortunately comes from a certain demographic.  Again, I won't elaborate on what that demographic is, because it would cause a considerable amount of controversy if I did.  The situation came to a head yesterday when we were attempting to unload our moving truck out here.  Let me get into that story.

 We live on a pretty narrow street in this section of town, but it is a narrow street that people seem to labor under the delusion is a thoroughfare.  This means that parking is at a premium, and it is not uncommon to have to park across the street from your own house - that is something that needs to change, first off. However, in addition, there is not much room for deliveries, moving vans, or other large transportation to do what they need to do, and that caused a problem yesterday.  We had to park in the middle of the street yesterday, and due to Barbara's health issues, she was somewhat limited as to what she could do, so it was up to me to singlehandedly unload a significant load of our stuff off the truck.  With one person, that takes time, and what complicated things further were people who don't even live on this street all of a sudden thinking this was I-95, and they were trying to come down this street in droves.  Some of these nasty, uncouth people got very combative with us, and I was not having it - I told these idiots to essentially either help out or shut up, and while we got cussings, horns blown at us, and other things, I didn't care.  This attitude with people in this city is inexcusable, and it is one reason why Baltimore is actually one of the crappiest cities in the country to live.  Compared with the rest of Maryland - and even the Baltimore suburbs - inner-city Baltimore is one of the nastiest, rudest, and dirtiest places to live, and the day I move out of here officially will be a day of celebration for us.  I actually made a quip to Barbara that the US would be a better place if cities like Baltimore ceased to exist.  And, the incident yesterday was only one of several incidents and individuals I could mention in the past year alone.

Between dealing with things I had to deal with at my former school I taught at (both from administration and some students - long story!), a micromanaging landlord who shows favoritism (and also has a bit of a legal skeleton in his closet), and the attitudes of others in this city - a short woman at the DVD who reminded me of an ill-tempered daschund, the various bums, porch pirates, and other buzzards one deals with at stores and elsewhere, and delivery people who don't care whether they do their jobs or not - make me pray to get out of here soon.  I may have noted some time ago that moving to this area of the city was not a first choice, and it felt temporary from the day I moved in to be completely honest.  So, feeling like this, what does it mean?  Let us explore that somewhat.

In the course of life, you start to understand that a season is about to end - you just feel it happening.  I knew, for instance, when our time in Florida was done in 2016, and although it wasn't under the best of circumstances, I now see it as the same when we moved from Hagerstown. As unpleasant as living in Baltimore has been in the past couple of years, I am of the understanding that for a season this was where I was supposed to be, and I accepted it. That is why my tenure at my school ended after 2 years, and to me that was a sign that this season was about to conclude.  At this point, I don't have a clue as to where I am going to be going, and a lot is contingent upon the job I land.  In that regard, I am open to what God wants, but the waiting is hard - I described it as being like sitting at a stale red light waiting for it to change.  There is an out coming soon I know, but may God give me the patience for waiting for it.  It seems clear that overall Baltimore is about as sick of me as I am of it, so moving out of here will be of mutual benefit, I guarantee that.  Any rate, just wanted to share that today.

Thanks again for allowing me to vent - it has been a bit frustrating lately, and I am starting to feel the weight of that more.  I will be back again soon, so feel free to visit anytime.