meet more people

I believe that meeting more people is the most important thing I must do in life.

Today I attended the Open Studio tour and went to the studio of the artists who participate in the same class I do. I particularly enjoyed getting to know one woman in the class who I wanted to know better. We will probably be great friends and will share some fun art times together. I am so glad I took the iniative to go.

I substitute taught at the high school today and when it was time to leave I made sure that all the paperwork was correct in the office before I left. The lady who helped was a substitute secretary and also happened to be the same woman who wrote an article on me and my art about five years ago for the local paper. We had a lot of fun recognizing each other and chatting about the different directions our lives were going. I guess all roads lead back to the high school in this small town.

Being summoned for jury duty has significantly helped with meeting new people.

I am having fun at work reuniting with two women that I have known in the past. I am starting to feel more connected with people than I have in a long time.

i guess this is more a -meet people i like thing rather than just meet more people in general.

i have very few people that i actually REALLYYYY like and get on with. don’t get me wrong – i like people and get on with them but there are so few that i REALLY REALLY like – ya know??

most of the people i know – i could no way hang out with them on a regular basis – most people just know one side of me – but i’m a very varied person. my tastes in everything are so far stretched that – yeah i can get on with a variety of people – but its just i know so few people who know all sides of me.

i dont purposely hide myself – it’s just i never get the chance to portray myself properly – either because the conversation is so limited, the situations we find ourselves in our limited, etc..

and the people who i do find who like a lot of different things are usually very pretentious about – like they only like a certain thing based on the fact that it is “different” and, therefore, “cool”.

i’m nothing like that. i’m a very much, i like this because i enjoy it, i can appreciate the effort/thought/creativity behind it and all the rest.

people these days seem to be ashamed to admit they like mainstream things, and so many are opting for the ‘different’ – which is now just very mainstream anyway!

when i tell people one of my favourite filmes is ‘SuperBad’ they look at me disapprovingly – like it’s wrong to like something mainstream, comical and light hearted. what is so wrong with liking light-hearted things?

yet – on the other hand, there are those people who do not like anything intellectual – they party every night and have countless one night stands.

...where are the middle people? the inbetweeners? the people who can enjoy a little bit of everything, can have fun, not take life too seriously, yet induldge in deeper conversations when the mood strikes.

pah!

We are hosting an exchange student and I attended a meeting regarding the logistics for this. I reconnected with people I have known since my children were babies. I am usually very nervous at these events but I remembered my goals and made an effort to volunteer for one event during the students’ stay. I stayed a little after the meeting to talk with other parents. I felt more in control of my nerves and happier when I got home.

So I decided that I need to meet more people to avoid the feelings of lonliness that I experience regularly. To that end, I became employed as a substitute teacher in two districts. This gets me out of my studio and into the “real” world. I have met some lovely people and enjoy interacting with them. I have also learned that I am truly a solitary being with a gregarious nature. I am very friendly and outgoing on the surface but tend to reserve my deepest relationships for a very few individuals. I do feel less lonely but I want to work on developing relationships that are satisfying, not surface, with more people. I have also joined a business developmnet group for artists. I feel much more aligned with this group and enjoy the conversation we have at the meetings. I am happy to have this group and will work to create more lasting relationships with the individuals in this group.

I’ve always had the tendency to be a bit of a loner. I find people often incomprehensible and can have trouble ‘fitting in’ in social situations where I don’t really know people.

As a consequence my social circle is really very small and I would like to expand it a little. Opportunities appear in life through other people and the events that surround them – living a loner lifestyle keeps a lot of doors closed.

I went to a social special interest group tonight. It was wonderful. I need to make this regular.