keep in better touch with friends & family

Although I’ve seeing a lot of friends and family lately, I’m feeling a heavy descent after finding out that 3 of my core girlfriends are leaving town. One took off for Australia yesterday (she met a man), one leaves for Winnipeg later in the month (she found a job), and a third is going home to Newfoundland after decades here in Vancouver.

It’s a bit selfish on my part, I know, but it’s really dragging me down. There are numerous people I lost regular touch with when I entered mommy-land, and I cherish the ones I still see frequently. It’s also coming up on the second anniversary of Paul’s death, which remains painful.

I think I should organize something like a tea party or clothing swap so I can re-connect with some of the friends I haven’t seen in a while. And make sure the ones I still have here in town know how much they mean to me, even if I don’t call/get out as often as I used to.

I’m going pretty good at this on-going goal of mine. With the wedding right around the corner I’m keeping in touch with everyone I know. After my mom passed away last year I’ve had to re-evaluate what “friends & family” entails really. She was my only family before then it seemed like and without her here it is a lot different. I do still have a lot of people to keep in touch with. Its hard that a few family members can’t pick up their phones and call me, I have to be the one, but I like to keep this goal going and I like to keep feeding myself on the warmth of friends and families love.

In the last few months I’ve seen quite a lot of my friends & family. I’d like to keep up with it even though the wintery weather makes things more difficult. These last couple of days I’ve felt too low energy to trek out for coffee meet-ups, but I’ve taken extra time to write/call some of the people I haven’t been in touch with for too long a time. These days it really takes so little to let someone know you’re thinking about them. I know it means a lot to me when someone takes a minute so to just say ‘hey’...

I haven’t been very good at letting the people in my life know how much I love them – reaching out to them often and responding to them promptly and consistently is a pretty straightforward place to start.

I just wrote a letter responding to my friend.

I have to work on sending a package to another friend which is LONG overdue.. and call another one back sometime this week.

Although I haven’t been keeping a decent friend/family starlog under this goal, I’ve been keeping in good touch with both. Letters, phone calls, e-mails, tea parties, mutual support, random wanderings, evening cocktails and friendly visits crop up pretty consistantly whenever possible.

Today I went to visit a good friend who just got out of the hospital, which was half a wonderful brunch & social call, and half me trying to help out where I could – she’s certainly been not only a great friend but also a solid pillar for me when I needed support. At very least I came bearing cheer, pink (fertility infused?) flowers, spicy chili chocolate, and a small, cute, dancing bear boy.

I hope we can wrangle a half decent gathering of sorts here with our mutual friends before summer is spent…

sometimes people tell me to call them and i don’t..

i want to be better at returning calls, letters, & messages with promptness and politeness

August 24th- sitting down and writing a couple letters to J & J

Trying to follow-up my thoughts of my family members with a phone-call or an sms.

kick ass trip with the boy scouts to Canada where they will spend 12 days canoeing and fishing and following historic trapper trails and stuff like that. Camping and general manly type roughing it is involved. Dave is pretty stoked about it. So his wife was feeling bad because she wasn’t going to get a vacation and she told him she wanted to go to a spa for a week. Dave -broke into a cold sweat thinking about the expenses of a week long spa vacation-told her she should come to my house . . . I have a pool, “It’s spa-like”, says he. So my sister in law is coming to hang out with me for a week starting this Saturday. I’ll have to find a place to get facials so she can further feel like she was at a spa.

^{Dee gave an awesome facial, just ask Snicks, but that is no longer an option :(}

Ever since my brother split with his girlfriend and moved back to the east coast, I’ve been spending every weekend hanging out with him, and I’ve had lunch with my mom once a week for a few months now. I just made a plan to hang out with my friend Hillary on Monday and I’m going to meet up with my friend Mike this evening, to meet his new wife. I’m definitely much more connected to my family and it’s good – especially with my brother. We actually call one another to say how things are going now, which is great. Having a built in structure to meet up with my mom also makes it easier and I don’t have to call her regularly to make her feel okay about our relationship. It’s good. It’s healthy.