K8 & I are quickly realizing that moving to a new city w/ an infant is not the same as moving to a new city w/o one.
Not that we’re upset about that, of course. But it’s hard to really get one’s head around the concept of being primarily “a parent.” How do young parents, who’ve recently moved to a new city meet people? Especially when their child is too young to actually “do” things (youth soccer, play in parks, story time at the library, etc.). And particularly when all their coworkers live a considerable distance away (K8 and I both commute an hour in opposite directions). It’s become quite a challenge.
It’s not like we can sit at coffee houses for hours at a time or attend indie rock shows on a regular basis (my previous life in Kalamazoo). And neither of us has old friends we can look up in the immediate area (we have family in DC and Delaware, but that’s one hour away in either direction). At Dickinson it was a bit easier, since it’s a tiny town & most of the young faculty lived blocks away from us; we even established a semi-weekly board game night.
So tonight our little nuclear family is heading out to explore the “Charming City” of Baltimore. We’ve been to some Orioles games, of course. And we’ll see them play the Tigers this Sunday afternoon. But tonight we’re headed out to Belvedere Square. It’s about a mile from our apartment, and it has free outdoor summer concerts every Friday. A band called The Voodudes is playing tonight. They’re described as “funk/blues”—which could be either really interesting, or really not. Either way, we’ll be checking out a new corner of our ever-expanding neighborhood.
