Woznation

There are so many thing that we are going to miss about Baltimore.  Phil and I absolutely loved living in a big city, where we could walk to many great restaurants, parks, and professional sporting events.  Everything we wanted or needed was within about 5 miles of us.  We had amazing jobs, colleagues and friends. Some of my favorite memories include:

• Walking to M&T stadium in sub-zero weather with Phil at the end of November for our first Ravens game.  We created our own little pub crawl stopping at various bars to warm-up on our way.  We sat next to come of the craziest fans, and had an amazing time.
• Dropping of Wil at school on Thursday mornings, then walking to Firehouse coffee to meet up with Laurel and Christina and their little ones.  Then after running errands, we would all pick-up the older boys and head to the tot-lot with Fionnuala and anyone else who could make it.
• Waiting for Phil to get home during the week, then walking to Patterson Park, where we would sit on the rock, pick flowers, walk around the duck pond, or stop by the garden.
• Meeting up with Phil’s friends for happy hour down in Canton — or meetings up with Phil on Fridays at Stackhouse for a beer before getting home to get the kids — or Phil hopping down to Roman’s after putting the kids to bed. So many good bars in Baltimore!
• Coming home from work, seeing Liz and the kids on the stoop doing chalk and the kids running to greet me.
• Going for runs after work along the promenade, through fell’s point, butchers hill, patterson park, canton – and all the other small little neighborhoods that made-up southeast Baltimore.
• Having the ability to go to the aquarium, zoo, or science center with the kids on 15-mins notice.

Of course city living had its drawbacks, too.  I’m pretty sick of living in a row house.  Its only 11 feet 9 inches wide and the walls were caving in after 4 years.  We were simply outgrowing the space.  And even though the park was close, there is no substitute for having your own outdoor space, and our stoop wasnt exactly the ‘outdoor space’ I wanted.  Row house living also provided many neighbors – not all of which were that great.  Some were crazy, some were on drugs, some were crazy and on drugs.  Some left food and bulk trash in the alley which led to a huge rat problem and many patches in Phil’s tires.  There were cops on our street probably every other weekend for some sort of disturbance.

So we are looking forward to our new space: A big back yard for Barney and the kids –  fewer neighbors, fewer rats – less trash, crime, and police sirens.  But I know we will miss being so close to all the fun things we enjoy doing. Most of all we will miss our friends.

date night