friends

In case you were wondering, I solved my "night in with the roommate" crisis by running away. I'm good at that. I took myself to a movie and didn't get home until after dark, by which time she had gone to bed. Problem solved. Unfortunately I can't afford to do that every time.

Which brings me to the subject of today's blog - I need to make more friends - local, single friends.

People often remark how blessed I am to have such a great support system and I know this is true. 

I have Internet friends all over the world who never hesitate to tell me that they are always with me in spirit, which is nice but quite useless, practically speaking, because they are, in point of fact, not actually with me at all. Of course, I would never say this to them because they really are trying to be helpful even if they can't actually be of any help.

I have 2 local friends who have been of enormous help and support and I am so thankful for them. I often feel a bit sorry for them because I've pretty much been dumped on them. Although we all have quite a bit of history between us, we didn't really see that much of each other in the 2 1/2 years since Taz and I moved here and now they probably see me more than they'd like to.

As wonderful as they are, they are both married with small children and busy lives of their own so they're not really the type of friends you can call up and say "let's go to a movie tonight" or "let's go out to dinner."

The last time I was single, all my friends were single too so it was just a given that we'd be out doing something together every night of the weekend. Even Taz and I were out together almost every night when we were living with other roommates. It was such a relief to move in together and, eventually, get married and stay home most nights.

But now staying home endless hours isn't something I look forward to. It was quite sad last night when I decided to go to a movie and I realized I had nobody, absolutely nobody, to call to see if they wanted to come along with me. I can, and do and will, do things by myself but it would be so much more fun with a friend.

So that begs the question - how do you make friends at this stage of life? Where would I make friends? It was easy in college and the early days of adulthood but it's never been easy since then and I don't even know where to start. I've taken classes and gone to church and social groups but friends aren't exactly lining up to hang out with me.

But I have to keep trying, don't I? It's so lonely and depressing to always be alone and I can't afford to let myself get depressed.