Starting Online

So as I’m starting to think about things I want to do to “get a life” again, I’m recognizing that one problem is having people to do them with. I have a small group of friends here in Seattle who’ve been close for years, but most of them now have small kids. Which means we can’t do a lot of last minute things, and that they just don’t have the time for a lot of things I’d like to do with them (travel is definitely out!).

And when there aren’t a lot of activities going on, I tend to focus too much on the limited plans that I do have. For example, I got a call yesterday from one of my friends (I’m going to have to come up with some pseudonyms or something for each of them – I think I’ll call this woman AlphaDog, not because of how she relates to our group of friends but for her relationship with her two dogs. She’s definitely in charge there.) Anyway, AlphaDog calls me; I didn’t pick up because I’m in watching the World Cup and assumed it was my sister (aka, the Bear). AlphaDog wants to go see An Inconvenient Truth. So I hear the voicemail and I assume she means that day. I call back, we’re doing the phone tag thing, and the day goes by. Maybe she meant sometime over the holiday weekend, again, because with two dogs, two kids, and a husband whose work schedule makes me look like slacker, she needs to plan. She’s actually done more than almost any of the rest of our circle to make sure we see each other, but I can’t just depend on her.

I need to reach out to other people who have more time to give. I’m baby-stepping it, though, (no pun on my friends’ fertility intended). First, there are some website forums where I’ve been lurking on and off for a while – I need to get involved in their conversations. They’re full of smart people that I have common interests with. So that’s resolution #1 – getting involved at Television Without Pity, MatchFlick, maybe Daily Kos. Then we'll see about IRL stuff . . .