Time to make friends

Once we moved to Baltimore I knew I was going to have to get out there and make friends. Life can become lonely when your family and friends are far away. Good thing I have a kid to help me meet people. I was told about Meet-up.com when I lived in SD. It’s a way to locate mom groups in your area, get outside, share parenting tips and maybe make a friend. The idea of joining a group in SD seemed ridiculous. There was a group called “No Drama Mama’s, they claimed not to gossip about others. Another group was called “Classy Mom’s”, they claimed to have manners & class. The fact that you need to tell people you have class means you don’t.

Lucky for me, the search in MD was simple. I typed in my zip code, and mom groups in our area popped up. I made a decision that the new East Coast Adaline was going to be friendly and open to meeting new people (or at least try). I spent a couple of hours on a Sunday evening trying to figure out what women appeared interesting and offered options. Unfortunately, you can’t just choose a group, RSVP to an event and suddenly you are in. You must first email the group leader, introduce yourself, answer some questions and set up a meet & greet before you can attend an official play date. This is for everyone’s safety. Guess they want to see if you really have a child and not some psycho who just wants to meet moms.

I completed the first steps and the meet & greet was set. I was given the secret location, Barnes & Noble, and told how to find the LEADER. Walk through the front entrance, go straight, make a left after the table of new arrivals, a right down the cookbook aisle, a left into the children's section, one more left and stop at Thomas the Train. My thoughts were, “seriously”, and “who is Thomas, and why does he have a train”? I may be exaggerating a little, but that's how it all sounded to me. Everything went fine, I met the LEADER and was told about the age groups and activities. I passed my meet & greet with flying colors. So I was now ready to RSVP, “lets bring on the play dates”. Slow down. This meet up group was serious business every event for our age group was booked for the entire month. Really, are the moms that cool? Good thing I could put myself on the wait list. Hello, my name is Adaline and I’m on a wait list to go to a strangers house so my infant can sit on their floor and put her hand in her mouth. Good times.

The things we do for our babies is silly.