The People You Meet...

First of all, may I say that I am absolutely tickled pink that Anne Glamore commented on my last post! I feel like I got an autograph from a famous and lovely movie star. If you haven't checked out her blog yet, please do so...her tales of motherhood and life will put a smile on your face and have you nodding your head in agreement. Plus, she's just a cool lady.

So. I've been thinking lately about how making friends in my 30s has been worse than dating was in my 20s. And I didn't have an easy time finding boyfriends, either. I mostly kept recycling the same crappy ones over and over again because it was just too much work to go out and find a new one. Well, that and I thought that my looooovee would change them into everything I thought they could be.

I keep meeting mommies on the corner playground or the Y or the commissary, wherever. We have great chats while the kids play together (without fighting, hitting or pushing). A lot of the mommies I meet are fellow military wives, so they certainly understand how hard it is to have to make new friends every other year. Oh, we have so much in common, oh we've been stationed in the same places, oh our kids are almost exactly the same age. Then, when it's time to leave, they give me their numbers and tell me to call, they have a playgroup and are going to the beach/aquarium/Gymboree and they'd just looooove to have us along.

So I traipse home with the kids, hardly hearing their quibbling because someone asked me OUT!!

And I repeat the number over and over until I get home, where I write it down and think about the impending playdate with much joy and happiness. For I am worthy of being asked on a playdate. Should I get my eyebrows waxed and get a pedicure? Perhaps a new outfit? Nothing too fancy...

I wait a proper amount of time before calling Ms. Playdate-Maker and act nonchalant on the phone while what I want to scream is "OK, what time can we come over and the kids will play in your lovely big backyard in peace while you and I look at Pottery Barn and J Crew and drink sangria and moan about our husbands' jobs?"

I keep that all in, though I am planning our glorious future of playdates, shopping, girl-movie watching and dishing. A date is made for tomorrow. Tomorrow comes, the weather sucks and the outdoor activity gets cancelled, but she invites us all over to play indoors...she'll call back "later" with details.

And then, I never hear back, or by the time I do, it has been an unaccteptably long amount of time and I feel that it would just be remiss of me to answer the phone and act all chummy, as if the fact that she didn't call back is just fine with me! It's no problem, really, that you are a flake and think my time isn't as important as yours!

You see how it's like dating? How you meet someone and hit it off and think "This could be the start of something wonderful?" and there's some anticipation of finding that person who truly understands you or at least your love of Pottery Barn (and your kids, your husband's job and how tired you are of your furniture getting beat up every time you move). And then, she flakes.

And I'm left wondering, is it me?! Well, maybe it's the kids...