Since having a baby, I have really gotten into routines. I always liked having them, but I have never fallen into rhythms easily, so I didn't have many routines unless they were forced upon me. Having a baby sort of forces routines on you, and I have generally loved every predictable minute of my routinized life.
Now that leaving is upon us, I have started realizing how much other people have woven themselves into my routines. Today, while on my walk, Wiggle and I ran into a friend and her daughter at the exact place we had run into them yesterday. It was around the same time, but only within an hour, yet there we were waving to each other around the same corner. I love that about my neighborhood. I run into people on the street, at the grocery store, the post office, the park. Before we had Wiggle, it happened less frequently even though we were out more. Now, we are more conspicuous when we are out, and even more than that we and all the other Hyde Parkers with kids are following a routine, one dictated by naps, meals, and weather, and emphatically punctuated by more weather, health, and, of course, mood.
Our current routine runs something like this- up between 7 and 8, breakfast, some reading and drawing, coffee while he watches Sesame Street at 10, play, down for nap around 12:30, up at 2:00, lunch, playing on the porch or in the yard, some laundry if we are in the yard, dinner around 5:30, a bath, bedtime stories, and down at 7:30.
Of course, it doesn't always go like that, but even if the times are off, there is still a rhythm to our day and our week. I will miss music class on Wednesdays, playdates on Thursdays, Saturday mornings at the Farmers' Market, the weekly run to Peet's for coffee.
I know we will find new routines in Fairfax; I will sign Wiggle up for another music class in the fall, but I will miss the other mothers and the kids from our class. Even if we did not form friendships with most of these people, they are in our lives. They are the people I wave to, exchange bits of info with at the grocery store, email about teething issues on the parenting listserv; they are my neighbors. I had been thinking about all of the things in Chicago I will miss, and of the specific people I will miss individually, but I will also very much miss my neighborhood, my community.
Hyde Park, I'm gonna miss you.
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Yes, I know...not only is your home your home, but your neighborhood is a larger home. I hope Fairfax is wonderful for you. I do remember we had that experience on Belden, where, whenever I went out with you it seemed I ran into friends, and somehow that didn't happen on Melrose. One of the things I love about Dallas right now is that I sometimes run into Chris or Kath when I'm out and about.
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