During my normal non-finals life I keep my apartment fairly neat. It's not spotless but I like to keep it clean enough that should my kooky maintenance man, air conditioning repair men or the building owner just happen to pop in I won't be totally embarrassed. By the way all 3 of those things have totally happened. The worst though was the air conditioning repair men. While they have accessed the air conditioners for the building through my apartment, one morning I turned on the coffee pot, poured myself a bowl of cereal & flopped down on the sofa to watch TV & eat some breakfast. Lo & behold there were FOUR men standing outside my window. Thankfully they were totally focused on the A/C unit they were repairing and I was able to sprint into my bedroom to change out of pajamas while my raisin bran got soggy. I love raisin bran and all but that stuff is NOT good soggy. At all. Ew. Oh & sadly(?) our building has apparently been sold and we have all new management. The sad part is that I won't be getting visits from a kooky maintenance man anymore. The new guy has some pretty big shoes to fill in the entertainment department.
The whole point of that long rambling paragraph was to explain that while normally my apartment is fairly neat, during finals it sort of resembled a war zone. Except it was a war zone littered with clothes, law books, outlines and goodness only knows what else. Part of my objective for my first day of summer was to put this place back together. While I had planned to come straight home from my doctor's appointment & clean, the cleaning had to be put on the back burner for a little while. When I stumbled out of my appointment I noticed some tents down by the Monument. Since I didn't have my camera I scuttled on home to grab it & check out whatever fun was occurring.
Turns out it was the 100th Annual Flowermart! The Flowermart originally began in 1911 in the same location it's held in today. After about 9 years, people from around the country came to Krabby Land to check out the Flowermart & take ideas back to their cities. It was even featured in Ladies' Home Journal in 1934.
This year's Flowermart featured a variety of flowers and other plants for sale along with live entertainment and handmade unique gifts such as jewelry and handbags. There were also all kinds of wonderful fun hats a la royal wedding at the Flowermart. Apparently the hats are a tradition; as the Flowermart website explains, the mart was continuing the tradition of "civility during this genteel festival." The plants were being sold not just by gardening clubs, but also by local schools as a fundraiser. And what kind of street fair would be complete without food?! Naturally there were a ton of food tents set up around the Monument. The one with the biggest line? The tent selling crab cake sandwiches. We here in Krabby Land really really really like our crab.
Aside from ambling around the tents, giggling at the hats & soaking up the sunshine I also had the opportunity to sample a Krabby Land staple: the lemon stick! It's basically a peppermint stick stuck in a lemon that's been sliced in half. You drink the lemon juice through the peppermint stick. I know. It sounds gross. But the peppermint neutralizes the acidity from the lemon. It doesn't taste like peppermint, just like sweet lemony goodness.
All in all it was a wonderful way to start my summer vacation & I'm glad I got to sample two Krabby Land traditions: the lemon stick & the Flowermart.
"Who but a Baltimorean would know how to eat a lemon stick?"Marian Burros
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