Making Friends

Remember when making friends was a pretty easy task? You just ran up to some kid and said "Wanna play -insert game/activity?" and if that person said yes, you were in business. I am grateful to have a solid core group of friends because as I have gotten older, making friends has gotten a bit harder.

When I was in grad school (circa 1999), I met my friend Emily who has become one of my dearest friends. We had several classes together and used to chat before/after class. One day, I said something like "Hey, we should meet for a beer some time" and then we started hanging out pretty often. Once when we were chatting about how we became friends, Emily said she had been wanting to hang out with me more but didn't know how to go about it without sounding weird. And I understood exactly what she meant. It shouldn't feel awkward to simply invite someone out for coffee, a movie, whatever. But as I have gotten older, it seems that is exactly what has happened.

In the past 2 months, I started taking the boys to a little class at the local library. At the same time, a co-worker, Ali, got in touch with me to ask if I would be interested in doing some child-care-sharing. Since we both work part-time, we had only met briefly. It turns out that she takes her kids to the same library class. So we have been taking turns hosting lunch after the once a week class (basically a play date but I hate that term for some reason).

Last week, Ali invited me to a movie that she won free passes for- The Secret Life of Bees- and tonight we saw the movie. Aside from seeing a great movie, we had the chance to chat sans kids. We get along really well and I am happy to have a new friend. It would be nice if making friends could remain as simple as it once was because I think that friendship is one of life's best gifts.

P.S.: The movie was a good one with some teary parts...I liked the different characters and found them interesting. There was one 'slow spot' for me but all in all, a very good film.

P.P.S.: Positives!!
*Michael participated SO MUCH in today's library class. He loves singing and acting out all the little songs.
*Liam is really coming along with his participation- during "The Wheels on the Bus", he sings 'all thru the town' and is following the actions that go with different parts of the song.