More winning, less drama

On Tuesday night, a few D.C. area friends, Danny, and I were a team for trivia at the Wharf Rat in Baltimore. As per usual, the trivia questions made me feel a tad dumb, the trivia master was equal parts charming and condescending (as you may recall, I'm talking about my cousin), our team lost, and the crab dip was the best around. Unlike most times, I didn't really have a ton of fun. My friends were not as engaged with the game or the marginally dingy Fell's Point bar as I would have hoped, I didn't even indulge in one of the signature Oliver ales, and I felt horrible by the time I crawled into bed. I hadn't really chatted with my cousins or their delightful bar friends. I'd made the mistake of trying to mix too many elements of my life. And, I did not feel like myself - too insecure, worried, and skittish. Oh, and argumentative.

I woke up Wednesday with an inexplicably horrible headache and an icky, almost hopeless feeling in the pit of my stomach.

So, what does one do when that happens? When everything you're doing feels wrong and off? Well, I guess you wander for a few days and then get lucky. So, when my phone rang Thursday night and it was my cousin Adam asking if I wanted to host a board game night at my apartment - which he had not previously visited - I jumped at the chance. And, Saturday night, after days of frantic and thorough cleaning, I had Adam and his girlfriend Megan, Paul and his girlfriend Megan, and Chris over for food and fun. We enjoyed burgers at a local bar and then retired to my living room for a few hours of friendly competition. Chris and I soundly defeated the others in Cranium and graciously lost at Scene It. In between, I think the guys beat the ladies in a few rounds of Catch Phrase... but I'm requesting a rematch. All in all, it was the first time since I moved in that my place really felt like a home. I slept the sleep, that night, of a person who felt she belonged and remembered why she wanted to move closer to family members.

Sunday was nearly as delightful. I kicked a little butt on the treadmill at the gym and emerged a while later from a shower to find it was snowing! That's the first of the season for us out here. I ventured onto the roadways with the crazy D.C. drivers to join Chris and a number of his friends at CJ and Jill's place for football. The Bears won, and I made a couple of new friends with whom I'm going to try to hang out. The girls at the watch party and I chatted - scheming about attending a few gym classes together and signing up for some 5Ks.

Overall, it was a nice last weekend before the insanity of the semester begins. Classes begin Wednesday. While part of me is more than ready for a more full schedule, the weekend reminded me that I want to keep making time for meeting new people and working harder at some of the relationships I have already in place. I'm a pretty fortunate person.