First date

I’m going out on a limb.  I have a date tomorrow night.  A coffee date with a prospective mommy-friend.  This shouldn’t be so nerve-racking, but it is.

I don’t really have any friends in this town since a certain friend MOVED (but that’s another story) and I get pretty lonely going to playgroups and watching the other mommies have a grand old time visiting and gossiping while I pretend to be thoroughly engrossed with Sacha’s tremendous painting skills. Don’t get me wrong, the kid is Picasso reincarnated, but I’m really not that into art.

This is all very absurd.  I’m wondering what to wear, what to order when I get there, should I talk about mommy things or should I try and strike up a conversation about, oh, the booming Canadian economy and our fantastic dollar.  Do I tell her that I knit?  Oh no, what if she thinks that’s nerdy.  Or that I have been known to obsess about fashion, or my looks, or my acne, or…

Sigh.  Making friends was so much easier when I was the kid in the playgroup: You wanna be friends?  Ok!

I can only hope that she doesn’t read my blog and then discover that I am writing about her and OMG that I am a total loser for obsessing over this.

Ugh.

Really, though, what are the odds that she reads my blog? No ones reads my blog.

Except you 😛

Help Wanted

WANTED

New Mama Friend to live in house next door as current Mama Friend is moving 18 hours away due to husband’s stupid contracting job.

Description of duties:

• employing the following motto with enthusiasm: mi casa es su casa
• partake in daily playdates
• share children’s toys
• willingness to babysit
• pass all hand-me-down kids’ clothing to me for first grabsies
• engage in winter evening knitting parties
• bring me sweet sweet coffee in the morning without notice
• participate in social afternoons involving screaming children and soothing tea
• outings to Walmart with children to pass the time with no intention of buying anything, but leaving with a cart full of crap
• exercise-paced walks with strollers
• not offended by children swapping soothers
• babysit stupid cat while we are on holidays

Qualifications:

• Must be a mother, SAHM to be given special consideration
• Extra consideration given to mother of toddler or pre-school aged children
• Must not be too hung up on cleanliness of domestic abode
• Must enjoy knitting, preferably while under the influence
• Must enjoy being under the influence
• Must be understanding to the fatigues and stresses of motherhood
• Must be very friendly and social
• Has BIG shoes to fill.

Wages – to be negotiated. Benefits include, but are not limited to, frequent meals at la casa Mustard, free babysitting services, playmates for children, total sharing of household contents, carpooling, unlimited use of backyard pool (weather permitting).

Applicants may forward their resume to Mrs. Mustard in the comment space below. Only successful candidates will be contacted.  Or semi-successful candidates.  At this point, I’ll probably be contacting everyone.  It’s gonna be a l-o-n-g winter.

Waiting

I’m tired of living here, away from everyone I love.  I was just getting used to it when my next door neighbour, a fellow mom with young kids, started a “my house is your house” sort of agreement between us that resulted in having adult conversation and friendship almost every day while my husband was at work.  Now, she says that she is moving – husband’s work, yadda yadda.  I know that story all too well.

She’s been gone on holidays for 3 weeks, and already I want to die of the monotony of it all. Wake up in the morning, feed S, play with S, watch Backyardigans, put S down for a nap, shower, go on the computer, S gets up, we play, have lunch, nap, wake up, go for a walk, park, play, supper, bedtime.  Repeat.  Every. Day.  

I spend so much time on the computer just to feel like I have friends and family close by, which I don’t.  I would not call 4 provinces and 3000 km away “close by.” If I was better at making friends, I wouldn’t have this problem.  I am not, however, what you would call a social butterfly, and I look at other moms pushing their strollers and long to scream out “HELLO!  CAN I BE YOUR FRIEND?”  But I don’t.  That’s just not me.   Read my old post: “Making riends: the new dating.”.

I miss my mom.  I miss my sisters.  I miss my grandparents, my aunt, my cousins, my kids (aka students). I miss my in-laws (call me crazy…).  I miss my best friends.  I miss life. 

My life right now is a waiting game. Just waiting.  Waiting for T to come home for lunch, waiting for T to come home at the end of the day.  Waiting for August when I fly away from here and visit everyone for a month. Waiting to meet Arlo and kiss his sweet head.  Waiting to see Elliot and dance ridiculous dances and sing silly songs with her. Waiting to see Sara and visit over pedicures.  Waiting to introduce Kaloni, my best friend since the third grade, to Sacha.  Waiting to hug my mom. Waiting to stitch and bitch with Andi while she spends all my money for me. Waiting for T’s contract to be up next summer. 

Waiting.

I’m tired of it, and I’m tired of feeling this way. 

Original Corruptors Membership Drive

Hello, my name is Sarah, and I am addicted to facebook.

It started as a simple way to establish an alumni/reunion group for my high school grad class.  Originally, I knew very few people that were on facebook. But that changed.  I added friends and friends, all people I grew up with, went to school with, had crushes on, worked with, lived with.  Friends began finding me, and the list grew.  My inbox was flooded with “So-and-so has tagged you in a photo on facebook,” “Whatsherpickle has written on your wall,” and “whatshisface has sent you a message” and I squealed like a piglet each time. I even created a group. Or two.  And had myself named as an officer of a few groups, with a title and everything (I am Queen of Grad, Dr Winston Wing DDS and Mme Randall). Most of my FB time is spent perusing through photos and videos of my friends’ children (those friends who haven’t yet discovered the wonders of the blogospere or of their own websites).

In all this hoopla, T began referring to himself as the facebook widower.

Then I convinced him to join.  Hence began the Corruption.

I have, since then, personally enlisted the following people to join facebook. And then they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on:

1. Tony
2. Stephanie (who wrote a hilarious post about the idiocy of facebook here)
3. Jason
4. Talia
5. Kaloni
6. Steve – a former facebook widower
7. Desirae
8. Brad
9. Julie
10. Christine
11. Dustin – a former facebook widower
12. Ryan
13. Jocelyn
14. Lynn
15. Amyee
16. Charlene
17. Abbi
18. Jennifer

Jennifer went so far as to name me as one of the Original Corruptors, aka the O.C.  Now that I’ve reviewed my list of suckers recruits (which I think is incomplete at best), I quite like the title.  Maybe I’ll start a group for Erika, Bon and I.  Maybe with some sort of bling for my blog to let the world know about the Corruption.

What about YOU? How many of you have pressed your friends to get on board with facebook?  Or blogging?  Or any other internet addiction laced with a healthy dose of crack?  Or maybe knitting…I think you know who I’m talking about!

Stripey Hat

I finished this hat for Baby Steeves last week, but I didn’t want to post any pictures of it, lest the baby’s mama stumble on my blog and see it.  The pattern was easy-peasy, although working the top part of the hat in the round with only 8 stitches for 10 rows or so made for a very annoying Monday night.  But, it finished up well AND it’s made of the lovely superwash wool from Knitpicks.  I even tested its superwash properties in my front loader and it came out just lovely.

Comments I have received about the hat:
“Are you raising a hippie child?” – Paul
“It looks like a circus tent!” – Marlene
“So precious!  That is a keepsake for sure!” – Random old lady

Now, I may FINALLY begin to learn the fine art of socks.  ALthough, truth be told, I am rather nervous and delaying starting them because it is something new and I am sure that I will be ripping them out numerous times before I am done.  And ripping out my work just kills a little piece of me each time I have to do it.

Making friends – the new dating

It may seem ridiculous to some of you faithful readers, but making friends is not my forté. In fact, I really suck at it. Well, maybe that’s a little harsh, as one of my friends put it…”you can’t suck at it because you have at least one great friend” (Thanks, Paul). But I have such high friend standards that I am very reluctant to get out of my shell for just anybody, in the fear that they may annoy the heck out of me and then I am stuck with them.

When I do meet somebody that I feel an instant friend-vibe with, I tend to let my guard down (little by little) and it usually produces a fantastic friendship that continues beyond time and physical location. I have about 5 of these friends. Maybe 6. Yup, 6. In my whole life, I have 6 friends that actually know the real me and, despite that, still love me. And vice versa. Most importantly vice versa. And they are all independent friends. That is, they do not know each other or have anything in common other than knowing me.

As I am starting to see it, I am a bit of a friend snob. My friends need to have something in common with me BESIDES the fact that I am pregnant, a teacher, a blonde, etc. Those superficial type things. It needs to be something like common outlook on things, shared history, ability to be retarded and make each other laugh, love of fine shopping and margaritas, or just being my best friend since grade 3.

Does that make me a bad person? Or hard to befriend? Probably. People used to tell me that I have this air of judgement, like I am always judging others. The truth to that is, I am just keeping my shield up to prevent others from getting too close without my approval. And maybe, rather than calling it judging, I would call it discerning whether or not I want to start anything up with them.

My discernment is really a precautionary measure for this reason: how do you dump a friend that you started to hang out with only to realize that she/he drives you insane? When you’re dating, you just give them the old “it’s not you, it’s me” or “I think we should see other people”. Does that work on non-romantic relationships? I really don’t know, and I don’t think I want to find out.

So here’s to the friends that I love with all of my heart and would do anything for. You know who you are, and thanks for not seeing me as the snob I am sure that I am. I am truly blessed to have you in my life, even if my life is now 3000 km away from yours.

The Pauls have been good to me

ok…so for those that don’t know, I have a really good friend, Paul.  He’s like family to me.  And I had a really good friend in high school whose name was also Paul, but we lost touch a few years ago.  Well, turn me upside down and paint me blue…I got an e-mail from Paul (the latter) tonight!  Man, I was so excited, I got on my computer and went to write back, and the batteries in my wireless keyboard were dead.  WIth all my stuff in boxes, I had to scramble around and find batteries (from Jenny’s remotes upstairs…shhhh…) and get my keyboard hooked up so that I could write to him.  He was such a unique individual, and he never ceased to amaze me with his depth of philosophy and character.  So yea!!!  I am floating on a cloud of friend-bubbles right now…