my lost weekend of memories

As I continue my trend of sentimentality, it is of great importance I share the experiences of our annual Julie memorial weekend this past weekend. We began this tradition right after she died in November, 2013. Julie collected friends-many of them. And all her friends became everyone else's friends. We have a group of about 14 women, all of which have known her in different parts of her life-college, post college, moves to Baltimore and Takoma Park, and various other snatches of her too brief life. What was so amazing about her is her longevity with her connections. She has created a group who have all known each other for 35+ years-and she is the common denominator.
Last years outing was hard. It was 3 month after she died-everyone was still grieving and we spent most of the weekend sharing our memories and getting teary. This year was quite different, as time has healed some of the pain of not having her here with us. We were more relaxed and able to just enjoy our company.
There was quite prevalent with this year's weekend of debauchery. We had phenomenal food, many laughs, and oh my god, lots of alcohol. Because we were in the city, walking was the simpliest-granted, it wasn't always a straight line, but no one was hurt or left in the dust. Well, not true, as part of our 10 (we were missing a few this year-hope everyone is there next year) made pit stops to the restaurant and lost track of their party. As well as the name of the place and the address. We followed up with a trip to Mum's in Federal Hill, a Julie hang out for baseball and shots of Evel-a very strange concoction of grain alcohol, cloves, and cinnamon. The 'entertainment' that evening was a young struggling college student strumming an electric guitar badly and singing off key. Didn't matter to us, the die hard dancers rocked out and made his night.
We headed over to the Bromo Seltzer Tower on Saturday for culture-very interesting in a Baltimore history sort of way. I arranged a wine tasting which was over the top great. They cracked 8 bottles of wine, we had many snacks, and made Danzel the wine pourer, very happy. Who, by the way, was a librarian in a former life. Kismet. Thanks Julie. Then off to dinner, for more wine and seafood. Took a quick detour to Slainte's Irish Bar for Irish coffees and Marcia's interpretive dance to hard Irish rock. And capped the evening off with the Cats Eye Pub for shots of Jameson and free bourbon shots and a great blues band. Hats off to the group effort to ensure everyone got home safely, despite a few moments of laying on the lobby floor.
Baltimore never disappoints. its has character, life, culture, warmth, and edginess. And in conclusion, I will need to quote Carolyn, "Julie sure did have great taste in women".
Okay, everyone, here's to looking forward to next year!