Friends not of the city in the city

I find it hilarious to write that as a title... because of the 3 people who might read this... and I think at this time, they are the only friends who know I have a blog at all - Estelle, Emily, and Sarah. All of them are friends who lived in the city for years but then moved away. Estelle and Emily for school and Sarah for missionary work. So really this could be about any of them but this is focused on Estelle coming back for 3 nights and my friend Christine coming into town for 2 days.

Estelle came back into town and we swarmed together in large groups, trying to catch up on life. I feel I got the best of the whole 3 evenings that she was around. Mostly in ratios of time spent with her vs how much time she was in the city... Her dad might have got a bit more... but of her friends I'm victorious! It was really great to see her, refresh our knowledge of each other and just spend time together. All the typical, what are you doings, and how are things that get asked on the phone but more relaxed. Plus we haven't had many phone calls to each other as of late so it was good to get back into the flow and be able to have those little silences that get missed because life gets too busy.

I picked her up from the bus stop the evening she arrived, drove her home, toured her yard with her and her dad, and took her out to meet up with people bowling. After much chatting and relocating the group twice, I took her back to her house. I wish I could capture how funny and wonderful it was that she fell asleep as she talked and woke up and was in mid sentence as if she had dreamed a conversation in the inter medium. The next afternoon and evening was a bbq that was full of chatting and memories from highschool. The end of that evening I drove her home and we chatted for a few hours in her driveway. That was when we really got the chance to talk. The last night was spent at a bar chatting with her, her friend and the friend's boyfriend. I walked with her out to her bike and felt like I was sending her off into the night to bike to Calgary. More a hilarious end than anything and a great way to leave each other laughing.

Christine came into town a couple of days ago to drive her mom to the hospital for surgery and then take her back home. We spent an evening as kids and parents catching up, all together. The next day Christine and I went off thrifting and had a lot of fun. Picked up my friend Joc and went for lunch and ice cream. Oh Ethiopian food how I love you. I said goodbye to them both as Christine needed to get back, to pick up her mom from the hospital. That was 2pm.

I went home and slept for a bit and got a call around 7 and we decided to have an in night as it was raining so much and I wasn't feeling up to go anywhere. We were just going to end up where Christine was staying, so we jumped the middle and just hung out in her grampa's basement all night. We chatted for almost 7 hours, using the game scruples for whenever our conversation got too... ranty? We would get stuck on a topic and one of us would pull a card to say "Ok, that's enough.". Approximately from 7:30 - 2am we talked. Absolutely fantastic! Christine pointed out that I was say goodbye exactly 12 hours apart. A very fun full day.

Anyways for future me, hope this was enough information to remember this little chunk of your life.

Hang out time.

For the past few days I've been getting back into the flow of visiting people. It has been really good to finally get my feet wet with different groups and to figure out where I am in terms of connection. Basically I'm relearning my friend dynamics and seeing who likes what/who now. Mostly just figuring out if I'm going to step on any toes and what subjects have become taboo with some.

Essentially I've been having the easiest time getting back together with people. Any confusions are cleared up within hours and all the drama that television and books say I'm supposed to have is nonexistent.

A fair few number of my hangouts have involved the game a question of scruples. (2nd edition as the first edition was just to full of random cards, hard to take it seriously in several cases). It is an older game from the 80s so there are a few cards that have been removed by us for just being far to offensive and out of date. No in fact you can't do that because a law has been passed and court cases have been fought over it. Very fun and gets conversations going in new and interesting directions. Like the question game but with less pressure.

I've been spending lots of time with friends from highschool. Joc and Meg who I hadn't really seen all that much in University, with Joc being away and Meg being busy. I've been going out with them for coffee, movies, and working out. Estelle I got the chance to talk with on the phone as she lives in another province. Now just to make sure that we connect again before the end of the year! We have these great long chats and then life snatches us up. And I'm keeping in contact with Sarah a great deal but not nearly enough with Emily, which makes me rather sad when I think about how I'd feel in her position.

Spending time with them has really made me feel happy in knowing them. All such great women who are absolutely fantastic.

But even with the old crowd I still have managed to meet a new person. Through Joc at a coffee shop on the 20th and then meeting him again last night as our server at a restaurant. This might be a good start to getting to know the city again and building up my status as "knowing everyone". This is a long term goal that I need to decide if I'm going to go after. If I do, I'll feel like I shouldn't leave the city and moving anywhere will seem harder and scarier. "But I won't know anyone!" Yeah a silly excuse not to move and one that my frightened self is really keen to pump up to unreasonable proportions.

As for my short term goals, today I'll be putting away clothes and seeing if there is anywhere to get raspberry canes and Saskatoon bushes in the city.