Be My Friend
No I am not talking about Myspace or Friendster Facebook. I can't ever get on those sites anymore anyway and according to Jandy, who is probably right, I won't be able to get on them for a long while.
I am talking about REAL LIVE IN-PERSON FRIENDSHIPS. I realized today that my closest friend here in Incline Village is my boss's wife. I met her 3 days ago. She's super cool but a. I have talked to her for approx. 10 minutes total and b. see prior comment regarding length of friendship.
How does one meet people?!
Why do I even need to ask that? I have been the new kid countless times in my life. My dad was in the Navy, I went to 7 schools by the time I was 14, I up and moved to San Francisco without knowing a soul and left with tons of friends, so why am I having a hard time here?
I have (probably unfairly) decided that it's because 65% of the Incline Village population is either 55+ or in middle school. I can't relate to either group. Nor can I relate to the 20% who are babymamas and babydaddies with strollers and stuff, or the 20% who are high school students or Sierra Nevada College students (YES I am an east coast snob and I am having a hard time viewing that as a real school even though it's supposedly great and the students love their professors and etc. etc.), and 5% are about my age. Greg and I comprise at least 50% of that 5%.
Yeah so my math skills smack of overgeneralization and so do my social profiling ones. I need to stop whining and just get out there and smile at people. Look out Local Starbucks, look out Local Library, look out [wherever else there is to hang out], here comes the New Girl.
I am talking about REAL LIVE IN-PERSON FRIENDSHIPS. I realized today that my closest friend here in Incline Village is my boss's wife. I met her 3 days ago. She's super cool but a. I have talked to her for approx. 10 minutes total and b. see prior comment regarding length of friendship.
How does one meet people?!
Why do I even need to ask that? I have been the new kid countless times in my life. My dad was in the Navy, I went to 7 schools by the time I was 14, I up and moved to San Francisco without knowing a soul and left with tons of friends, so why am I having a hard time here?
I have (probably unfairly) decided that it's because 65% of the Incline Village population is either 55+ or in middle school. I can't relate to either group. Nor can I relate to the 20% who are babymamas and babydaddies with strollers and stuff, or the 20% who are high school students or Sierra Nevada College students (YES I am an east coast snob and I am having a hard time viewing that as a real school even though it's supposedly great and the students love their professors and etc. etc.), and 5% are about my age. Greg and I comprise at least 50% of that 5%.
Yeah so my math skills smack of overgeneralization and so do my social profiling ones. I need to stop whining and just get out there and smile at people. Look out Local Starbucks, look out Local Library, look out [wherever else there is to hang out], here comes the New Girl.
Labels: enjoy the blog, IV
posted by Courtenay at 11/28/2007
6 Comments:
Although I met my wife while living in Tahoe...she's about the only one I met. They can be a little one dimensional.
Head north young woman to truckee. That is where the cool kids hang.
PS i got my teaching credential at Sierra Nevada. Lets just say the school is silly.
Okay so I've been here in the cruz for exactly four months now (to the day) and I feel like I can still relate to the "New Kid" feeling. I also had moved countless times growing up and can easily cope with the process of making new friends and carving my own little niche.
But despite the 100+ classes that I sit in, the countless "Hey, that's a cool bike" comments, the new-ish job with people who seem like they would be so cool to hang out with, I can count ONE friend here. And she is my girlfriend.
Otherwise the large part of the population that I come into contact with tends to be around 18-years old (and unfortunately dense), 50-years old (and unfortunately cosmeticized), or age-group peers that I want nothing to do with.
I am currently accepting applications for friends if you or someone you know likes to ride bicycles, eat good food and drink tasty wine, and has the sensibility to not TALK through lecture.
I've found that smiling at random people in public places produces one of or a combination of two things;
1) I find people as weird as I am that laugh at the fool standing there smiling at them.
or
2) I become "THAT WEIRD 'SIMLE' GUY AT STARBUCKS."
Either way, makes for fun times.
..seriously though, get out there and meet people. friendly people make friends.
Just say "Hello" to the person standing in line with you at the grocery store or Starbucks, or wherever you happen to be. You'll meet some cool people who will be amazed that someone in line actually is a human being who wants to talk! Part of life is personal interactions...not online interactions. Facebook and the like are nice for keeping in touch, but real friendships are made in person...
wear a tube top.
(even when it is snowing.)
can you get a puppy and walk it at a dog park?
my mother has a gazillion little friends from the park...tho she only knows their dogs' names. but it's a start.
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