Monday, May 07, 2012

Big News! Moving to Georgia!



I wrote that whole last blog post and forgot to post my big news! We got our next duty assignment, and will (MOST LIKELY) be heading to Robins AFB in August! It wasn't the top of our list, but it was still on the list, so we're pretty happy about it :) We'll be half a day's drive from my mom, and the area is supposed to have beautiful state parks and lakes and great fishing, so J is very happy about that. I'm happy that Macon has a yarn shop with Knit Nights, and that we'll be less than 2 hours from Atlanta, which has great food and great shopping! (IKEA!! H&M!!)

I've never pictured myself living in the "Deep South" before, being someone who could be described as part of many different counter-cultures from Atheist to Socialist and everything in between, but if living on an Army base has taught me anything it's that you can have a perfectly lovely time with people who are 90% different from you, as long as you can find that 10% to talk about and avoid the heavy shit. I have plenty of social activity here on base with people I only have knitting or baby wearing in common with, but few people I really connect with. I'm sure that without a language barrier between myself and the general population my friend-options will be much broader! I've already found a La Leche League and an Attachment Parenting group in the area, and we plan to join the UU church as well.  I also plan to try and make it to the yoga classes on post, and maybe try to get up to Atlanta to do a Hoopdance workshop or two.

Speaking of connecting with people on a deeper level, my husband and I often get together with two couples associated with the American school here and the Corp of Engineers, whom we really enjoy spending time with. Both educators and engineers tend to be more up our alley in terms of interests and sense of humor, so we were excited to play our new game "Cards Against Humanity" with them, which is like Apples to Apples for "horrible people". J and I admittedly have a pretty crass and outrageous sense of humor and have seen everything there is to see on the internet, but we still found it a little sad, if amusing, to have to explain things like bukkake and glory holes.

There's been a thread in my online Due Date Club group about making friends as adults, and it seems that we all have the experience of thinking we're the only one who finds it so difficult to make real connections, as adults, but really it's everyone! Why is it so much harder to make friends now? Reading many people's comments I discovered I have it better than some; I get out and join groups in my community and am fairly fearless about talking to people I might have things in common with, but I still have a hard time getting past that acquaintance stage, and into real friendship.  I think this is why I've always been more comfortable making friends online; a text medium forces you to talk to each other rather than just "hang out"!

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