I worked at the Rite Aid Distribution Center and Wal Mart before that. Rite Aid was absolutely horrible and they worked me to death and claimed I was not doing ym job, which ended up with me being terminated. The messed up thing was I WAS doing my job as best I could, but I just cannot move that fast. I'm in good health and all, but it's just like some people are naturally good athletes and others are good writers. I'm not made for that kind of work.

Wal Mart was a lot of fun though as I had friends there. It was like a sitcom at times and I may even go back when they're hiring again. Though they also said I was too slow a few times, lol.

That sucks. Have you tried submitting some articles to a magazine or something? It sounds like you enjoy and may be better suited to writing and such. You could also work in an office, which is what I do. All I do all day is sit and stare at a screen, and then occasionally do work. lol.

You know, I really should be submitting stuff to various magazines and stuff. I write like crazy and despite my sometimes crappy grammar (and the occasional spelling error), I can write an article with the best of them. I am writing a novel at the moment and while that won't likely get me a ton of money, it's still something to start with, something that shows what I can do. And considering the awful, amatuerish crap I have seen published as late, it can't be that hard to get a book out there. But I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Thanks for the suggestion by the way!

No problem. What's your novel about?

Hoo boy, thats a question I have been anticipating for some time, lol. I'll send a PM and give a basic summary.

LoL. Okay.

By the way Noir, is it just me or is Maryland becoming less of a fun place to shop in? Out of all the Record and Tape Traders, only 6 or 7 out of the once 12 are left, White Marsh Mall has lost all decent stores except the dreaded Hot Topic and Suncoast, Towson Mall is very dull and boring now, I believe Tower records is gone, Kay Bee Toys is gone (I'm an action figure collector), and who knows what else is next. For a shopaholic like me, these are sad times......

It's true, though I don't know if it's specifically Maryland or all over. People are really doing a lot of shopping online these days. I know I did almost all my Christmas shopping online and if you looking for anything unique (i.e. non-mainstream), a lot of the time your only choice is online.

Even though Baltimore and DC are pretty metropolitan, they're not quite the level of New York or London, where I think you still have interesting shops because there is actually enough subculture there for the demand.

White Marsh does suck and it's gotten kind of ghetto lately. Towson Town on the other hand has gotten more Gucci. They added a whole new wing with a Cheesecake Factory and PF Changs and a 2-level Crate and Barrel. The Crate and Barrel is really awesome if you into cooking and such (which I am), they have reasonably priced and good quality kitchen stuff. The music and toy stores are of course still gone. Really it's just clothes and food now.

I know, there used to be an FAO Schwarz in Towson which had big BIG teddy bears, and I couldn't help but smile when I went by it. Plus they always had new cool figures before anyone else did, even some less 'kiddie' figures which is what I collect (or collected I should say). And Towson had a decent bookstore on the third level, and an alright music store called Waves on the second level. Obviously, they both went out of business.

There's barely anything to do around here anyway, and for people like me who don't drink or get into stuff like sports, it's rather boring to just go shopping all the time, and now I can't even do that.

I have seen that Cheesecake factory place, and my girlfriend being the huge cheesecake person she is means we will likely go there soemtime when we both have jobs again. I may have to check out that Crate and Barrel place as I have been getting more interested in cooking myself as of late.

By the way, do you know of any health food stores around the Baltimore area? I go to Trader Joes in Towson, but I'm looking for more stores like that which cater to Vegetarian/Vegans. Any help is appreciated by the way.

As for sports, have you ever heard of roller derby? I'm not a sports person myself, but I do love watching a good roller derby bout. It's a bunch of goth/punk girls skating around a ring trying to block the opposing team's members from getting ahead by rather forcefully blocking them. It's pretty entertaining, Baltimore even has their own league.

As for grocery stores, besides Trader Joes there is Whole Foods in Mt. Washington and Fells Point. Whole is basically a more expensive Trader Joes. Though we're not vegetarians, we try to eat only organic food and shop at Wegman's at Hunt Valley. It's awesome! They're organic/vegetarian section is the same size as Trader Joes, plus you have all the regular grocery store stuff, which is nice if you need laundry detergent or you can't find something in the organic section (often for us it's spices). The organic section has a lot of vegan/vegetarian items along with gluten free. They also have a huge oraganic soap/shampoo/skincare section. They also have a huge tea and cheese (if you are a cheese eating vegetarian ) sections along with a massive produce section that has many organic produce mixed in. Wegman's is seriously the only place we shop unless we need one or two things for which we just go to Whole Foods because it's closer. You should really check it out, it's off 83 at Shawan Rd. Hope this helps.

Oh yes, I still eat my cheese, too much actually, lol. This is definitely a big help, thanks.

I found another health food store near me, but their prices are a bit too much. Trader Joes has some cheap and some expensive things, but compared to this store TJ is a bargain bin.

I've heard of roller derby before, but if it has Goth girls in it, I'll be checking it out for sure. I must say I have a bit of a thing for Goth girls, though I guess thats a given, lol.

By the way, do you know of any places where REAL Goth people hang out at around here, I mean besides clubs of course? I'm so interested in meeting new like minded friends and while I have a reasonable amount of friends already, I would like to meet others who have the same taste in music, fashion, and dark arts that I do.

I love cheese too.

Other than the MD Renaissance Festival in the fall, I don't really know where any of the goths hang out. I wish I did LOL, it's hard trying to meet like-minded people when you belong to a subculture. 10-15 years ago, I would have said Towson, but I don't know what happened to them all.

Ah your right about Towson. When I was younger and first started driving down that way, I saw lots of Punks and Goths hanging out on a rather regular basis. I even noticed a 'preppy' guy, a Jamaican lady, and a Goth guy all walking down the street together talking. It was like a town of love of acceptance, lol. Honestly, I had never felt safer in any other part of MD that I frequent other than Towson, though as you said, this was about a decade ago and things have changed since then. Its been some time since I even saw a single Punk down that way. I often wonder where they all went to?

Yeah, they all used to hang out in front of Towson Commons or in the Towson Cemetary (I think it was called Prospect Hill) and Towson Commons had Rocky Horror Picture Show on the Midnight movie. The Silver Dinner (at Towson Town Mall) was also popular. I could almost always go over there and find someone I knew. Then it just kind of went away, people you knew just disappeared. It's really rather strange, I mean are there any goths left?

Ha! Not in Maryland, I'm afraid. Maybe its a conspiracy, eh?

Seriously, I really do wonder where they all went to. It didn't seem to be a gradual dissolving but more of one summer they were there in droves, the next summer they were all gone. Its kind of sad because they gave a great ammount of 'color' to that area' if you'll pardon the ironic quality of that statement, lol.

Did you know any of them enough as good friends that you had like phone numbers or some sort of contact info for them? Maybe they just found another place to hang out.

By the way, where is the Towson cemetery at? I have a habit of going to cool graveyards and cemeteries and taking pictures of them, mostly just for fun. And I'm always interested in scouting out new ones. The stores may close down, but we hopefully won't have worry about the cemeteries doing the same, at least I hope not. Maryland actually has quite a few really cool cemeteries in it too.