Feeling at home, at home

When we left NY for our new city almost two years ago, I knew it would take some time to meet people and feel belonging in a new place. I remember discussions with my husband about how long that might take - my bet was 2 years, his was 6 months. Unfortunately I was right - but I'm glad to report that we've made it.

The activities of last weekend aptly demonstrate this. Friday night we went out to dinner and ate at a familiar restaurant with outside seating. We ran into a couple with a baby we had seen at the same place the previous Friday night and exchanged pleasantries. Saturday morning we went for pancakes at our favorite cafe run by a lovely couple from Ethiopia. We enter and our son runs to hug the open-armed owner - the wife of the couple. We decide to eat outside at the sidewalk tables, park our stroller with infant and proceed to order our usual - of which the husband of the couple, Soloman, is already mentally taking down. My son associates pancakes so much with this man, that he thinks the chef in the blueberry pancake story of Curious George is him. As we are enjoying our meal, a couple we know is walking by on their way to another eaterie. They are with their 2.5 year old and parents. We have a nice chat over coffee and sunshine.

Later we head to the playground. Its a beautiful afternoon with a sun lower in the sky and the feeling of Fall coming. We run into another couple we know (and really like) and spend the next hour or so mingling and watching our kids play (they have twin girls our son's age). We've been wanting to get together with these folks for dinner for a while but with end of pregnancy and birth of new child - social engagements have been on the back burner. So we are delighted when the wife asks if we want to come over for dinner chez eux. We accept, exchange information and start a leisurly stroll home, chatting as we went and enjoying the historic backdrop of old, brick sidewalks and federal period row homes.

We say goodbye on a corner which is crowded with restaurant life - tables are bustling outside and the weather is perfect - its Saturday night. And even though we are jealous of the young and hip who are drinking martinis at those tables we are feeling quite pleased with our weekend so far.

Sunday we go to church. After the service we stay for the coffee hour and chat with the many people we have gotten to know there. Sounds cheesy but we've gained a real sense of community from this place. It helps that it is a particularly liberal Episcopal church which employs a talented and very witty Brittish rector. The new assistant rector is a young and smart woman who happens to be a lesbian and in a couple relationtionship that she wrote about in her first letter to the congregation. So - a very open and interesting environment - one that we fit well in. We then see a couple that we've had dinner with on a few occasions. We met them at a screening and discussion session for "An Inconvenient Truth" that the wife put on last year.

To round out a great weekend, one that exceeded our expectations as we have a 2 month old, we made our weekly trip to the Farmers Market at Headhouse Square - a market location since the late 1700s and one that's constructed of old red brick and surrounding cobble stone streets.

"A" and I talked about how many people we had run into that we knew over the weekend. That combined with a routine of fun places to walk to and enjoy having spent enough time in a place to know them made for a comfortable feeling. We felt happy with our accomplishment of passing enough time to feel at home in a new home.

Common Sense Advice

Don't take library books on vacation.
Arthur's Tooth now has a new home on Delta airlines.