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By Kate, 27 January 2010 7:00 pm

I tend to remember strange and interesting little things about people and situations in my life. Things that probably have little to no significance to anyone else. They’re just bits of history that pop up now and then to remind me that I’ve known such variety of occurrences and acquaintances.

I haven’t seen David Smith since high school, but I went to school with him from the time I moved to Maryland in 4th grade until we graduated from Frederick High. We were never close friends or anything, but he was in a bunch of my classes over the years, and he was always someone I thought of as a good guy. My clearest memory of him is from one of those awful Middle School dances that pretty much everyone went to in order to stand around and feel monumentally awkward for a few hours, even if a dance wasn’t really your thing (it definitely wasn’t mine).

David was the first person to ask me to dance. Ever. I declined because I was a wimp and I didn’t even know how to dance anyway. Though from what I’ve been reading, maybe he could have taught me a thing or two if I’d accepted the offer. In any case, he just brushed it off and went to ask someone else. I think it was just a matter of having fun for him, so it probably seems insignificant. But middle school is a time when a lot of kids could be and often were quite cruel about anything and everything. This particular dance was fairly soon after I was accosted in the girls’ bathroom and asked ‘God, what’s wrong with your face?!’ in ultimate disgust (by someone else I also remember quite clearly, and for that statement alone), referring to my erupting teenage complexion.

A statement like that wouldn’t bother me much now, but naturally it really got to me then. So being asked to dance when I thought I was the epitome of an ugly middle school mess was amazing. I think he probably boosted my self esteem by 110% without even realising it. And that pretty much defines what I remember about David. He was a nice kid. Nice to everyone, and genuinely so. There are plenty of other snippets from elementary school and high school that I remember, but that’s the one the pops into my head unprompted every now and then and makes me smile.

I didn’t even know David was in the Marines until yesterday when I heard about his injuries. Shows how good I am at keeping up with things. But according to the outpouring of love and memories on Facebook, he loved being a Marine. And while I really don’t agree with the war, I will always back the soldiers who fight it, because they have more bravery in an eyelash than I do in my entire body. So I’m glad to hear he was doing what he loved, because that makes all the difference in life. And because he was such a happy person, I’m pretty sure that everyone who remembers him does so in a positive light.

Obscure old memories and stories show you how a person really is, so it’s too bad that they don’t often come to the surface until they’re tributes. I may not have seen the guy in years, but reading everyones’s memories on his Facebook wall paints a great picture of a full, happy life.

People live on through stories. So keep telling them.

Frederick remembers beloved student, athlete, Marine

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By Kate, 18 July 2009 7:06 pm

Last week, I discovered that my favorite bar is closing. Or rather, reopening under new ownership. Or something like that. Either way, the Andy’s I know and love will be no more after tonight, and it’s much too far away for me to stop by for a last night in a place I’ve missed since I left Chestertown.

Andy’s was where I had my first legal American drink. (And second. And eighth…) It quickly became my favorite place to go with friends for dinner or drinks or both. Andy’s had the best burgers in C-town and some killer specials every single night. It’s where I discovered that a stout float could actually work, and taste awesome. It’s where I learned that a good bartender is worth their weight in gold (and rum). It’s where I tried my first Dark and Stormy and had some of the best Mojitos a girl could ask for. Plus they had Dogfish Head on tap. Really, what more could you want?

Andy’s is where I celebrated my thesis production with so many friends and family (and champagne!). It’s where I celebrated a lot of things actually, and self-medicated for probably just as many. It’s where I went for dinner when I found ants in my peanut butter and couldn’t face any of the other food in my cabinet. It’s where my friend Melissa had her first date with her husband. It’s where I went to say goodbye to friends before moving across the pond. It’s where I’ve looked forward to going back when I finally get back to Chestertown this winter. But now, that’s not going to happen.

Behind the bar at Andy's.

I’ll miss the drinks and the food and the free popcorn. I’ll miss the comfy, squashy chairs and the big fireplace in winter. I’ll miss squeezing as many people as possible around a table and talking about nothing til closing time. I’ll miss taking other people to Andy’s for their own first legal drinks. I’ll miss walking in and feeling home.

I hold every bar I walk into up to Andy’s example. And I still will.

I know Andy’s last night will be a huge party, I only wish I could be there to rock it out in style with all the other people who come to say goodbye. C-town is losing part of what makes it such a great place to be. I’ll be having a Dark and Stormy in Andy’s honor.

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By Kate, 12 July 2009 11:43 am

At the request of a few people, I’m going to post directions for making a tshirt blanket, prefaced by the disclaimer that I actually make these quite sloppily without doing things like ironing seams and making exact measurements. I have about 4 of them now, and I usually want to get them done quickly, because they’re more for lounging around or picnicking than they are for decoration. In other words, this can be as fuss-free of a project as you want it to be as long as the desired result for you is just something to snuggle up on the couch with.

First of all, gather up all the shirts you were about to give to goodwill and grab a pair of fabric scissors. In general, it’s best to use only shirts that are regular cotton or cotton/poly. Stretchy stuff will throw off the design and make the sewing bit more fiddly.

Find the smallest shirt in your pile and cut off the bottom hem, the sleeves, and the collar and top seams. Cut the biggest square/rectangle you can get out of the front and back of the shirt. Try to cut square to the grain of the shirt. This can be a little tricky on some older shirts that have been twisted and stretched from years of wear and washing, but just do your best. This first square you cut is your template for all the others. You can either just use it to trace around, or you can make a cardboard template the same size and use that.

Now cut off the bottom hems, sleeves, collars, and top hems of all your other shirts and cut squares out of the fronts and backs of all of them using your template piece as a guide. You can trace around it with a pencil or fabric chalk or whathaveyou, or you can just lay the first fabric square you cut on top of each shirt piece and cut around it. Like I said, I don’t get too specific with this project, so be as fussy as you think you need to be.

Now you’ve got a stack of fabric squares that are roughly the same size, you get to decide the size of your blanket. You can make it as small or large as you want. It mostly depends on how many tshirts you end up with. My biggest one is 6 rows of 5. It’s also my favorite, partially because it’s got the most nostalgia attached to it (There are a lot of favorite shirts in that blanket, particularly the Ben Folds Five one that I literally wore til it was falling to pieces. I still mourn the loss of that shirt.) and partially because since most of the shirts were well-worn before I cut them, they’re extremely soft, and thus perfect for a blanket.

My favorite. It's enormous! I couldn't even fit it all in one picture. Poor BF5 shirt, I wish you were still wearable.

In any case, clear a big space on the floor and start laying out your blanket. Once you perfect your pattern of tshirt pieces, you’re ready to start sewing. It’s easiest to sew each row together first. So starting with the top row, take your first two squares (from left to right) and lay them right sides together. You can pin down the side where the seam will be (recommended if you don’t sew often) or you can be a bad example like me and not bother. Sew down the side with a seam allowance of about half an inch (or whatever you’re comfortable with, you can always cut off the excess later if you feel you need more space). Open up the squares, take the next square in the row and lay it right sides together with the square to the right of your first seam, pin if you like, then sew down the right side again. Keep doing this til you get to the end of the row, then repeat with each row of your layout.

You should now have your sewn-together rows of tshirt squares laid out on the floor. Sewing the rows together involves slightly longer seams, so I do actually pin when I’m doing this bit because it’s easier to keep it all together. Starting with your top two rows, flip the second row up and lay it face down on top of the top row (so that the bottom edge of the top row is matched up with the top edge of the second row). Smooth out and try to match up the seams between the squares in each row if you can, then pin about every 2 inches (on the bottom edge of top row/top edge of second row side). Sew this the same way you sewed between each individual square. Now open these rows up, flip the third row up and lay it facedown on the second row, and repeat the same process. Do the same for each following row in your blanket until you’ve sewed the entire front of your blanket together.

For the back of the blanket, I always use tshirt sheets. I don’t generally use the flat sheet when I make my bed, so I would just go to Target and buy a set of tshirt sheets, use the fitted one and save the flat one for projects like this. My favorite tshirt blanket uses two twin sized sheets sewn together on the back because it’s so big, but if you can find a flat sheet the same size as your finished front, that’s the easiest. You don’t even have to use a tshirt sheet, you can use a regular one you’ve got lying around. It really just depends on how you want the thing to feel in the end. Make sure you wash and dry the flat sheet before you start sewing it. Especially if it’s a new one. I didn’t do this once and ended up with a slightly deformed tshirt blanket because the back shrunk in the wash when it was already sewn together. Not a huge deal, but it can be easily avoided.

The back is not nearly as exciting.

Lay your flat sheet out on the floor and lay the completed front of your blanket facedown on top of it. Make sure it’s as flat and smoothed out as you can get it, then trim any extra off the flat sheet. Pin around the outside about once every two inches, pick the whole thing up, and pick a corner to start sewing from. Make sure you backstitch on the first corner. Give yourself at least a half inch seam allowance and sew down each side of the blanket until you get about half a tshirt square length from the corner where you started, then backstitch again. (Don’t get excited and sew the thing all the way shut, because then you’ll just have an inside out blanket.) Now pull the blanket rightside out through the hole you’ve left, tuck in the extra seam, and topstitch it closed, backstitching at the beginning and end of the seam.

You could get fancy and topstitch around the entire edge of the blanket, or you could even put binding on if you want to take it further, but this is the point at which I say ‘finished!’ and wrap myself up in my new blanket.

These make great guest blankets, picnic blankets, throws, and are great for dorm rooms. Best of all, they’re a valid rescue for your most loved shirts that either don’t fit anymore or are threatening to disintegrate from over-wear.

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By Kate, 1 May 2009 2:37 pm

I miss Washington College a lot today.

I tend to miss it a lot, and not in the way that I want to go back and live it again, because reading The Great Gatsby often enough (and, you know, living life) will pound into your head that such things aren’t possible. No. I miss it more in the way of remembering how awesome a time I had for four years and then being a bit jealous of myself, and then a little annoyed because maybe I didn’t appreciate it quite as much as I should have at the time. But no one ever does, because if they’re anything like me, they’re having too much fun to notice. As it should be.

May Day, just like Birthday Ball, is a major Washington College holiday. For those of you who have no idea of the traditions of my alma mater (and why should you?), May Day is generally known as a time of naked dancing around the flagpole. Usually at midnight. And usually large quantities of alcohol are involved. But I don’t really associate May Day with nudity alone. (I never did participate in that particular element anyway.) I associate it more with the general happiness that the semester is over, your work is (mostly) done, and it’s time to sit on Middle porch with some beer and some friends and some bullshit. And one year, a makeshift barbecue of Foreman grill proportions. I feel like that’s a particular feeling you don’t get very often in life, and even less so outside of college.

In any case, because I’m at work waiting impatiently for the metaphorical bell to ring so I can get on a train to London for a weekend break, I’m wiling away my time trolling through the WAC website looking at all the stuff I miss about sunny Chestertown. And pining. Maybe not for my college days in particular, but just for that ‘Hey, it’s summer and this beer is good and I’m not really concerned about anything else right now’ feeling. Because it’s a good one.