Wanted: People to see and places to go

Greetings all. Natural disasters are topping headlines this morning. I haven’t watched any news reports yet, but I did read a couple one line facebook posts about it…call me caught up. Glad to be safe in the heartland, at least for now.

Last night a friend treated me to a show with Garrison Keillor. If you are not familiar with him the simplest way to describe him is a storyteller. He is also the man behind A Prairie Home Companion on NPR and an author. His voice is an instrument and his look, a train wreck but god is he good. He stood on stage, aged and not happy about it, greasy dark hair in need of a trim, baggy gray suit with a red tie and red suede sneakers reminiscent of the ones I wore in the late 70’s and bright red socks. Accompanying him on stage was a black stool and one lonely glass of water he never drank from for two and a half hours. The man tells stories about himself and his experiences and the people in his life, many stemming from Minnesota. You have to stay sharp because his voice lulls and hidden within his spoken word will eventually be a statement that strikes you as so true yet utterly hysterical. He finds beauty and humor even in his alcoholic Uncle. He is good, definitely not for everyone, but for me – a master of his trade.

I think I’ll be reflecting on this experience for some time, if anything because I haven’t done anything culturally stimulating for a long time. Steve and I need to get out more. We just have a hard time finding things to do and enjoy being home bodies. We would like to do stuff WITH people, but it seems through the years many of our friends have moved away and meeting people is hard.

I’ve lost my good first impression mojo too, which doesn’t help in meeting new people. I’ve been pretty spot on reading people and situations…it’s because of this intuition I’m probably still alive. So what I tell you is true and not overly sensitive. Lately, the strangers I used to feel so comfortable around, uninhibited, have turned on me. A case in point is I went to some environmental education classes up in Omaha a while back. Everyone in these classes were people I have lots in common with, professionally and most likely extracurricular as well. I sat next to my friend I went with and noticed that no one was sitting on the other side of me. I told my friend that no one wanted to sit next to me. She laughed and said I was being silly. Then a guy came and sat next to me and after a couple minutes actually gathered his stuff and moved. The seat remained empty the entire weekend of classes. Deep down I knew it finally happened, to the stranger, I am uninteresting. My friend shrugged her shoulders and conceded that I was spot on.

I think this is all because I’m out of practice, my husband included. We need to bolster up on our “Hello, my name is…” and find our people. I’m thinking that having a baby will be a good in. I’ve been trying to find family groups in Lincoln so we can go do stuff with new people – like go to the pumpkin patch or the zoo or hit the nature trails. There is a great group that I found that sounded perfect for us. A group that does family things, but also has gatherings and outings for just the moms, or just the dads or both. There wasn’t prior requisite either, like a religion or affiliation of some type to be a part of it. Just a group for parents that wanted to meet people and do stuff. I was thrilled to find it but failed to see from the beginning that it was in Lincoln, California.

I daydream that we should start a group like this, but the catch is we suck at meeting people. What to do? My sister and I were so lucky to have parents that had friends with great kids for us to grow up with. I want the same for my child. I want my child to be able to say, “We’ve been friends since we’ve been babies”, just like me. Like Garrison Keillor said, “It is best to keep your friends from the beginning, don’t lose them, because there will come a time when no one will want to be around you, but your oldest friends will, out of habit.”