Keep in touch….

People, do you know what I love about you? I can neglect you and you still love me. I can treat you in ways I could never treat people in “real life” and I can get away with it… I can keep secrets from you. I can carefully reveal things that only portray me in a certain light…. and, still, you love me.

I’m making a list.

Surprise. Surprise. Surprise.

I need to maintain a few relationships in real life and, well, it is a painful thing for me…. Not that I don’t LIKE any of these people… trust me, I edited the people I don’t like out of my life a long time ago…. But relationships are so much WORK. I don’t like calling people… I don’t mind talking on the phone… it is the act of picking up the phone and dialing that gives me pit-prickles and a stomach ache. (And it is genetic… my mom is the same way.) So you can imagine what actually making plans to meet up with someone does to me….

1. I really need to meet the new neighbors… they moved in months ago. I made chocolate chip cookies last night. I vow to take some over to them today and introduce myself…. After I shower. I’ve been watching them (sometimes with my binoculars…) and I think if I time it right I can do it when they aren’t home… leave the cookies & a note and run.
2. Worker Bees. I will invite “the gals” from work out for an after work glass of wine later this month. This one is pretty low-stress. They don’t care if my floors are clean… they just want to see my son & help me plan my flower beds. I love them.
3. Mrs. R. Mrs. R is my friend from high school. She married a guy who also went to school with us & they have a cutie little girl a few months younger than Sweet Boy. She understands. We email at work on a regular basis and always make plans to get together that fall through… it doesn’t matter… she’s still there and I know I can rely on her if I need her. These are the kind of low pressure relationships I can cope with. Maybe we will plan coffee this afternoon or swimming later this week….. or next week.
4. Mrs. L. Mrs. L was my good friend back in the early-Helena days when we were both pre-husband & children. We lost touch. Every time we see each other we have fun but neither one of us really makes an effort.
5. Lala. Lala is, truly, probably my bestest friend… too bad she lives, like, 1800 miles away. I am making plane reservations THIS WEEK to go see her in October. Do you hear me, woman? THIS WEEK. Stop with the threatening emails already…. I WILL MAKE THE RESERVATIONS THIS WEEK.
6. My mom, my sis, my mother-in-law. All, thankfully, low-key and easy to be around. Sometimes it seems odd to me that my closest pals also happen to be my family…. Either really scary or really lucky… depending on the day. Not to say that any one of them either singly or in combination isn’t perfectly capable of driving me completely freakin’ insane…. but not usually.
7. All those fire wives. I really like a few of the fire wives… but it is hard to be friends with them…. Marriage to a fire guy ain’t easy and, well, to be blunt… a lot of the relationships just don’t make it…. So why bother?

There. I feel better. I’ve made sure no one expects much from me and isn’t it easier to please people when they have really low expectations to start with?