Day 6/7

So I haven't written for awhile, and from what I hear from my mom the whole world has stopped.  Haha, no but seriously...classic.  So I will start on Saturday morning.  I woke up at about 530 because I was working at the Farmers market that day.  530 was tough.  I went to bed, even, at a reasonable time.  I just think waking up that early, with or without being rested, makes you tired.  So on top of my lack of sleep, I had to collect basil and load the truck with various coolers of eggs, and meat.  The basil has to be cut and bunched the morning of or else it will wilt, and then placed in a bucket of water.  So after lifting some heavy coolers, and organizing the truck we were off to Washington DC.  The drive was about ... I am not sure exactly because I slept the whole time, but it is definitely over an hour.  So we pulled up to a very small lot with our truck, and I had just woken up as we were pulling in, and Kent started to park the truck where we would be selling our products.  He did some parallel parking with our monster truck, and we got out and started setting up the EZ up tents.  As I got out I can remember a young man, much like myself, was sitting by his stand at the farmers market and almost eyeing me down.  And I remember feeling a little insecure, and stupefied as to why someone would be looking down on me at a farmers market.  His cold stare gave off a "look at this city kid who knows nothing about farming".  I almost felt like paris hilton, and her sidekick when they spent however long working on a farm on MTV the show channel.  Ok, well not exactly like Paris Hilton, but you get it.  I kind of relate that look and feeling to volleyball tournaments.  I am pretty sure that every sport has flaw, but people wouldn't expect it as much to happen in volleyball.  When we have tournaments for volleyball, we go to a humongous gym in LA that can hold up to some 50 teams playing at once.  The top 6 teams, I would say are pretty douchie.  They all "swaggishly" walk around with their team, probably talking trash about how terrible another team is.  The worst is when you play against them ( and obviously my standpoint is from the perspective is from a team that is boards the top but not quite top 10, so you can see where it would be different if you were actually competition for them ).  But they will talk across the net, the bench will laugh, and its just a terrible experience being on the other side of the net, especially when not only the team gives up, but the coaches do too.  Anyways, back to the farmers market.  After being stared down, I set up the tables got all the vegetables out, and dog treats, and cash register, and garlic, and herbs, and coolers.  So then I was ready for the day to begin and I put on my cheery attitude, and a pinch of a fake smile.  The first sale we made was for eggs, and I didn't really understand how popular their eggs were until an hour into the market.  They were sold out.  The best was when someone would come at 12, when the eggs had been sold out for 2 hours, and casually ask for a dozen large eggs, like they were certain there were eggs left for them.  classic mix up.  The day working was pretty easy, just taking orders weighing the food, converting it to cash, then doing the math in my head.  Kent was pretty serious about not using a calculator to add and subtract the amounts, and therefore kept a small whiteboard and dry erase marker with him.  Adding and subtracting isn't that big a deal for me, but during high school I never really did calculations in my head because I always had a calculator.  Why not right?  I only had about two times where I messed up the math, and the customer graciously corrected me.  Everyone is so nice, and friendly ( besides classic farm boy ) at the farmers market, and it is a really fun atmosphere.  There are two musicians playing their guitars, and a whole bunch of other farms are selling their product, and it really is a fun time.  At around 1230 the sales really started to die down, and I was getting tired of standing the whole time.  After a few ridiculous stragglers came up and asked for eggs, the day was finally over, and we could pack the truck back up.  After I had lifted some empty coolers, and stacked some empty cartons I was a free man.  The rest of saturday night, and sunday were all at my disposal.  As soon as I finished packing I retrieved my bulging red backpack full of clothes for the night to stay with my cousin who attends the University of Maryland.  So I started to walk off into the depths of Georgetown, and make my way to the metro.  I was loving life at the moment, I felt like youth was happening, and I was by myself in a big world.  I loved the feeling of having what I needed in a small knapsack ( actually a big backpack ) and I had nowhere to be, and I could explore as I may.  It was a combination of that, and the fact maybe that I was on my day off.  The reason I know that days off are prime time, is because that when I was working at my jewish camp this past summer we would have one day off a week to go home.  As soon as the clock struck 5 o clock, and I drove out of camp in my large suburban, I was immediately stoked on life.  Those are the only words to describe the feeling.  The ocean was on my left, the sun was up above, and possibility was up ahead.  Anyways, preface to when I was walking in Georgetown. That morning I had decided to wear my flannel, jeans, and my beanie because Will told me to look as "farmie" as possible.  So i obviously went with the flannel; however, I failed to realize that it was going to be 85 degrees that day, with some slight humidity.  So as I was walking down the streets with my backpack, my whole body is just drenched with sweat.  I wanted to find a quick outlet store just to buy a t-shirt, but decided just to stick it out.  After walking past preppy student after preppy student at Georgetown, I walked right into GWU.  After realizing where I was, I remembered that a counselor I knew at camp went to the school.  I called him up, and was at his dorm within 10 minutes.  It was really nice to see him, because basically anyone from camp is a best friend.  You can basically talk about anything and everything, with anyone from camp.  So i hung out in his dorm room for about an hour, soaking in the air conditioning with my shirt off.  I loved seeing him, but after about an hour or so he had a lunch to go to.  So I was on my way again, this time to College Park, Maryland.  After frantically trying to find a map, I asked someone which trains to take, and was on my way.  It took about 45 minutes, and went by quickly with the help of my iPhone.  I got off of the train, and my bladder felt like it was going to explode.  I looked every where for a bathroom, but the train exit didn't hold one, so I started walking to where I was going to be picked up by my cousin and brother.  I found a couple of cop cars waiting outside the exit and quickly asked them if they knew of any public restrooms around, and they said there were some restaurants up the road, so I started walking.  Turns out, after I got picked up from Paul ( my cousin ) that the restaurants were a good fifteen minute walk from where I was.  Nice cops.  So i arrived at Paul's apartment, which is basically like a frat house, and I was greeted by about ten other jacked, jersey wearing, hat sporting, Natural Ice Light drinking, football watching, very nice bros.  I got settled in and decided to look int he fridge for food.  Its pretty crazy that over the course of one day I was being fed gourmet meals, at a vacation like home on the country side, to going to a disgustingly messy frat house, and making myself a Stouffers Pizza roll.  classic.  We hung out for a little, and watched some of the Federer Djokovic match that was on, which was heartbreaker for Fed, and then our cousin Cara came over.  She came from New Jersey where she lives to hang out for the night.  We showered, in a almost dysfunctional bathroom, and then got dressed to go out to eat.  We went to a place called Jason's that from my opinion was a bad version of Panera.  The chicken panini I got was pretty dry and terrible, after coming from the farm life food.  I noticed a little placard on the table, that stated that this Jason's restaurant cared for the customers so much that they have chicken that was produced in a "nice environment".  I thought that line was pretty classic, coming from a farm where I was taking care of the chickens.  It was a pretty vague statement, that shouldn't really spark anyones interest.  Unless they state that they were free range chickens on an organic farm, you shouldn't really think that highly of the chicken you are eating.  Anyways, I met Paul's girlfriend who was extremely nice, and we all got complimentary ice cream from Jason's after we ate.  It was super nice to spend time with my cousins, and brother after working pretty hard, and being all by lonesome for a week.  It was nice to just kickback with family, and have a fun time.  We went back to Paul's apartment and then went out to his friend Ben's apartment for a little party later.  I met a bunch of super nice guys, and I had a bunch of fun, but I don't know if I'm ready for that kind of lifestyle.  Obviously, my freshman year wouldn't have been so lackadaisical, and crazy, but still.  I am not ready for college yet I don't think.  It is nice though,  I do like how care free the lifestyle is, and how easy it is.  So after I woke up at around 1030 on a very comfortable couch, we all went to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast.  And I have to say the donuts were not as good as I expected them to be.  Kind of stale.  I am going to fast forward to Will, Dan, and I going to a play tonight because I have been writing for some time now.  We were driving to Fredrick to see a play in a small theatre, and on the way there the sun was protruding through these ever fluffy clouds, and I was mesmerized.  I was mind blown by the beauty of them, but Dan and Will were having some conversation about something or other, and  I asked them.  Guys is this view just normal for you? And the laughed and slightly took a little more notice of the amazingness happening outside.  We got to Frederick which is a super cute little town, and we walked into a building where the small theatre was.  We were greeted by the theatre owners and were served some food before the play.   I felt like i was in a very exclusive club, with all of the nicely dressed adults snacking on fruit and sangria.  Dan and I had some more bonding time, and we talked about swimming and sports, and even dabbled a little in girls.  I asked dan if he dated around.  I guess I use the word date pretty loosely because he thought I meant have long relationships, and he quickly shot me back with a curt, no.  He gave me some response along the lines of, I am traveling and moving a lot so I don't really have time to be in a relationship, and why should I be in something that would just get in the way of my goals and dreams.  And I was pretty flabbergasted.  I didn't think Dan could produce such a ridiculous answer of the sort.  Maybe when I am that age I will realize what he is saying, but I sure as hell hope not.  Not just because of the fact that girls are awesome, just the fact of how he's organizing his life.  I think its dumb to organize things like that first of all.  I like things to happen naturally, as of late I guess.  I think if you like whatever you doing you shouldn't stop.  If you enjoy doing one thing, or talking to one person why should you stop, because it gets in the way of "your goals"  I mean Dan is only 23.  I never really want to grow up and have responsibilities and the answer he gave me was teeming with adult like juice and concepts.  It was too much of what I don't like.  But Dan is a super nice guy, and I think he didn't fully understand what I was asking, but it was enough for me to rant for a little bit on here, so thanks for that at least Dan.  And on the drive home, after the play--the play was decent not that great but kind of interesting twists-- it was drizzling lightly ( which is my favorite ) and the view of the beautiful country side got to me.  I was so thrilled to be where I was at that moment in time, and for some time before I realized where I was I was just casually sitting in a white scion, with two people I met a week ago going to see a local play in Maryland.  Like WHAT??  That's insane I never thought I would be doing that a month ago.  Its amazing.  It has still been hard though getting used to what I am doing.  I mean I love having awesome epiphanies, but its still kinda crazy what I am doing and having it settle in is still kind of tough.  But I have an awesome attitude, and I am glad to be here.  So, with that.  Nighty.