Friends

I didn't get a look at the temperature this morning but it was cold enough to snow a bit, so we had a little dusting on the ground, and snowflakes blew around all day. If it's going to be gray every day we might as well as some pretty snow to look at.

It was another inside work day for me, as I continue my clean out of the ebay room. I made a lot of progress, and got some things packed and ready to send off to friends and family. I had a little pile going of odds and ends--a vintage Florida apron for my granddaughter in Florida,  an Early American Pattern Glass jar for a friend named Carmen because that was the name of the jars pattern, an old Life magazine featuring Paul McCartney and a guitar shaped necklace for my musician granddaughter in Nashville, some photos and a sky lantern for a granddaughter who wanted some old pictures of her Dad--and I know she likes those lanterns.  The guitar shaped necklace was made by my very talented friend Nancy in Arizona from fused glass, just gorgeous. I wish I had thought to take a picture of it.

So all that is packed and ready to mail tomorrow, along with a couple ebay packages. I stopped work long enough to make dinner of baked chicken, Alfredo pasta and leftover peas from yesterday. Comfort food, and delicious on this cold day.

I had a couple nice long conversations with friends and a few short text conversations with others, and it struck me how, after 12 years of retirement, I finally have a circle of local friends. I know that sounds odd, but I worked over 50 miles from home and while I knew a few people, I really had no time for visiting or even phone calls back then. Add in the storytelling travels, gardens, and keeping up with our five sons and their families, and, well, there just didn't seem to be room for much more. Now, I have found myself completely enjoying just chatting on the phone with this friend or that. It's nice, you know?

It wasn't that I had no friends before. I sure did, but they were mostly storytellers, and scattered across the country and even in other countries. We communicated online or in joyful conferences, when we could attend. I went to conferences from Boston to Bellingham, WA, sometimes rooming with friends I had only talked to online. Those conferences were such fun---if you have never hung out with a bunch of storytellers, you have missed a treat! Stories, laughter, singing, even playing and dancing all happened spontaneously. 

An old photo of me and my roomie at the Denver Storytelling Conference, in 2002 or was it 2003? Not sure what I was saying, but I was so glad to be there, and rooming with Vicky, a friend I had never actually met in person. By the way, I still have that shirt, a lot worse for wear. It finally became a work shirt this summer. 

I remember at a conference in Denver, a group of us were on an elevator and a man in a business suit got on with us. We were laughing and singing some silly song but of course stopped singing when he got on. But we were all just so happy, a natural high, and as he got off he asked why we were there. We told him about the conference, and he said that if it was storytelling that could make such a loving, happy group, he wished he had some of it in his life. Of course we invited him to the evening concert, and he came! I have thought of him often, and I hope that he was able to carry some of that joy home with him.

I am still in touch with many of my long distance storytelling friends,  but how nice it is to have women friends right here in my county. It is a pleasure I had not realized I was missing.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.