Some days, when I work downtown on Pratt Street instead of in Owings, Mills Jacob meets me at Big Red.

Red-Buoyant 1978

Red-Buoyant 1978

The sculpture in front of 100 E. Pratt Street is actually Red Buoyant 1978 and it’s a painted aluminum piece by Baltimore resident and sculptor, Mary Ann Mears. (Here’s a fun fact: Baltimore commissioned a second Red Buoyant in 1984 and sent it to Kawasaki, Japan—Baltimore’s sister city.)

Seeing me, Jacob said, “You ok? You look tired.”

I was—so instead of walking home we jumped on the Charm City Circulator and got off at the corner of Pleasant and Charles Streets.

We headed to the Enoch Pratt library; Jacob had reserved some art books and I needed to have the folks there resurrect my library card. (Library cards expire. Who knew?)

Then we headed to Mick O’Shea’s for snacks and Long Island Iced Teas. We each had two LITs and shared a plate of Oysters Rockefeller and an order of Fried Calamari.

Everything was wonderful, including the slowly building roar of the patrons’ conversations and laughter as happy hour ramped up to full-bore. Total damage: $42. Such a deal—we walked the 3 blocks home, enjoyed the late Spring breeze, and commented about how much fun it is to live in an urban center.