My first two years or so in Portland, I knew exactly six people. Two of these were the dear dear Watsons, friends made years and years ago when we were young (babies, all of us) and childless (them) and extremely proficient drinkers (mostly me).
Another two knowns were my hapless co-workers at the ridiculous excuse for a company owned and operated by my coo-coo-for-cocoa-puffs Dad and Step-mom.
And two of the six, of course, were my family-business-owning folks. Who promptly decided to MOVE TO MEXICO three months after I got here (the myriad problems this eventually brushed up against most certainly contributed to the fact that I continued to know only the same few people for months and months and months after they moved away... but I digress). So soon it was down to just four people.
I worked a lot while employed at the parental units' company. On the weekends, Joosh and I would run around town and have fun as only the two of us can, but never in any kind of branching-out-and-meeting others sort of way. Often I would get drinks with my poor tortured co-workers, Happy Hour bitchfests, running, jumping, diving into sorrow-drowning cocktails after work. But as much as I love these women (more than a year after leaving Crazy, Inc. I still adore them), they are a generation and/or two ahead of me. Our lives are very different and so more often than not it was less socializing, per se, and more bitterly complaining about the encroaching insanity at the office. Other than that, until the Watson's moved here, in fact, the most out-of-work socializing I managed was with periodic out-of-town visitors!
In short, the moral of the intro story here: Not exactly an instant social butterfly in my adopted home state.
Until now, that is...
Not only did I meet incredible people in my writing class last Quarter, I've managed to force about 60% of them into continuing to be my friends and associates by starting a writing group and demanding that they gather to read and listen to me, um, I mean to each other every other week. So far so good.
In addition, one of the lovely ladies I met in the class started what she calls "Nerdy Ladies Board Game Night" and involves a rotating group of about 30 gals who gather five and ten at a time at a local pub on Sundays and Wednesdays to play board games. Last week we played The Game of Life - Simpsons version - and as in the real deal, I was excellent at making money but more exceptional still at losing it. I did manage to get away with only having one child, where another gal had to get a second car to tote around her giant clan, but she actually ended up having a pile of a million and a half bucks in spite of all the college and orthodontia and whatnot, so maybe there is something to the whole "have a litter" mentality. But this is beside the point! The point is, I met new people! I ventured out! I socialized! It was amazing.
And so. Between these intellectually stimulating pursuits and the myriad people I'm meeting at the Wellness Center (free massage, free acupuncture, free chiro, free! free! free!) and in the strange world of business networking* I am clearly on my way to being the absolute Belle of the P-town Ball. Appallingly, I don't have the wardrobe for it, I'm afraid to admit. And since Wellness Centers pay well in free treatments but not necessarily in greenbacks, well, I'm rather poorly equiped to span the bridge between student-y/bordering-on-slovenly casz and creatively proffesionally artfully well put together. Well put together has never been my strong suit. This is my only complaint in all the newfound goodness, and therefore I am not actually complaining. That would be ridiculous.
*I don't even know how to describe this weird phenom called networking - there are networking groups of 10, 30 (100!) who get together every other week and, like network, and then once a month a bunch of these smaller networking groups gather together in one giant room to network with each other and though it all seems absurd, tons of work is passed around and met about and contracted and completed and paid for or traded. I have already been contacted by two potential new clients, and I've only been to one networking event, not even as part of a group (cause ps - they cost money to join!). Oh strange and unusual new world I've stumbled upon. I know people have been so-called-networking for years and years - wasn't it like the power word of the late 80's? - but that it still goes on, and that it is not just a code word for getting shitfaced drunk with peers and writing it off, I don't know, I am a little mystified.
Another two knowns were my hapless co-workers at the ridiculous excuse for a company owned and operated by my coo-coo-for-cocoa-puffs Dad and Step-mom.
And two of the six, of course, were my family-business-owning folks. Who promptly decided to MOVE TO MEXICO three months after I got here (the myriad problems this eventually brushed up against most certainly contributed to the fact that I continued to know only the same few people for months and months and months after they moved away... but I digress). So soon it was down to just four people.
I worked a lot while employed at the parental units' company. On the weekends, Joosh and I would run around town and have fun as only the two of us can, but never in any kind of branching-out-and-meeting others sort of way. Often I would get drinks with my poor tortured co-workers, Happy Hour bitchfests, running, jumping, diving into sorrow-drowning cocktails after work. But as much as I love these women (more than a year after leaving Crazy, Inc. I still adore them), they are a generation and/or two ahead of me. Our lives are very different and so more often than not it was less socializing, per se, and more bitterly complaining about the encroaching insanity at the office. Other than that, until the Watson's moved here, in fact, the most out-of-work socializing I managed was with periodic out-of-town visitors!
In short, the moral of the intro story here: Not exactly an instant social butterfly in my adopted home state.
Until now, that is...
Not only did I meet incredible people in my writing class last Quarter, I've managed to force about 60% of them into continuing to be my friends and associates by starting a writing group and demanding that they gather to read and listen to me, um, I mean to each other every other week. So far so good.
In addition, one of the lovely ladies I met in the class started what she calls "Nerdy Ladies Board Game Night" and involves a rotating group of about 30 gals who gather five and ten at a time at a local pub on Sundays and Wednesdays to play board games. Last week we played The Game of Life - Simpsons version - and as in the real deal, I was excellent at making money but more exceptional still at losing it. I did manage to get away with only having one child, where another gal had to get a second car to tote around her giant clan, but she actually ended up having a pile of a million and a half bucks in spite of all the college and orthodontia and whatnot, so maybe there is something to the whole "have a litter" mentality. But this is beside the point! The point is, I met new people! I ventured out! I socialized! It was amazing.
And so. Between these intellectually stimulating pursuits and the myriad people I'm meeting at the Wellness Center (free massage, free acupuncture, free chiro, free! free! free!) and in the strange world of business networking* I am clearly on my way to being the absolute Belle of the P-town Ball. Appallingly, I don't have the wardrobe for it, I'm afraid to admit. And since Wellness Centers pay well in free treatments but not necessarily in greenbacks, well, I'm rather poorly equiped to span the bridge between student-y/bordering-on-slovenly casz and creatively proffesionally artfully well put together. Well put together has never been my strong suit. This is my only complaint in all the newfound goodness, and therefore I am not actually complaining. That would be ridiculous.
*I don't even know how to describe this weird phenom called networking - there are networking groups of 10, 30 (100!) who get together every other week and, like network, and then once a month a bunch of these smaller networking groups gather together in one giant room to network with each other and though it all seems absurd, tons of work is passed around and met about and contracted and completed and paid for or traded. I have already been contacted by two potential new clients, and I've only been to one networking event, not even as part of a group (cause ps - they cost money to join!). Oh strange and unusual new world I've stumbled upon. I know people have been so-called-networking for years and years - wasn't it like the power word of the late 80's? - but that it still goes on, and that it is not just a code word for getting shitfaced drunk with peers and writing it off, I don't know, I am a little mystified.
2 comments:
Since I've been here 18 months or so, I just have to give it another six more and take (another) writing class, and then I'll have more friends than just Joanne? OK.
No no, friend. You have a child, which is the number one bestest way to acquire friends in a new city besides a dog. And you have one of those, too.
Kids and dogs are like insta-bonders, allowing perfect strangers to talk like best friends from inhale number one in each other's proximity. Things you would never say to another person, even after knowing them a year or more, you can somehow strike up as an ice breaker when there are kids/dogs involved. Things about poop and throw up and blood-gushing injuries and how little sex you have with an infant/puppy around.
Having neither child nor dog, I only know these things because of assumptions made by others when out with baby Sarah. Dude. I don't know if you know this, but parents and dog owners? Koo Koo, Koo Koo. And crazy friendly. Like let's make a play-date for tomorrow friendly.
Hmmm. Maybe this is a Portland thing, now that I think about it. I seem to remember parents being a little stand-offish in So Cal.
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