Community-Based

I am a lone wolf this week since Peter is out in California filling his brain up with knowledge about the Gilded Age. Don't be jealous! I'm certainly not. I've got big plans.

On Sunday I saw a bunch of girlfriends for a truly epic five-hour brunch. I'm meeting up with book club girls for a picnic on the Common. Later this week, there might be some ladies golf. And I'm totally organizing all my closets :)

After thinking about our move last week, I was struck by how far I've come in the last year building up my community of peeps. Of course, I still wish all my friends and family would move to my neighborhood (and I tell them this every chance I get). But one-year in, and I'm doing okay. Better than okay: I have new friends! If Peter did this trip a year ago, the only thing on my list would have been...organizing my closets. That's a very lonely list. 

I used to say to myself, "Give it six months! Then you'll be established." I have since revised that to a full year (hindsight being 20/20, and all that). That's sad news if you're moving to a new place without many contacts, but I think that time frame would have me go easier on myself in January when I still felt like I had hardly anyone to reach out to for a random glass of wine.

You can hardly find a top-ten most emailed list that doesn't include an article about the difficulties of making friends as an adult, but it is hard to do. I didn't go to any crazy lengths, though - I basically followed the advice given to single people looking for dates. Join clubs, take lessons, meet friends-of-friends for coffee. Yes, I felt dorky at time, but seriously. I felt dorkier when I had no one to talk to about the pros and cons of maxi dresses or the TomKat fiasco :)