connecting

Last week was an eventful one for me. Steve ran off to Paris again for work; unlike last year, I was unable to get time off to join him. This made me sad. I was taunted by visions of a vacation that was not meant to be ~ strolling down the boulevards and gazing out at the river from the bridges; French bread and wine and cheese; lazy cups of coffee at cozy cafes; high school French phrases emerging from the recesses of my brain; watching the parades and fireworks on Bastille day. Le sigh. Instead I dreaded a week alone in sleepy cville, fighting off the loneliness that has been pervasive lately.

But no - I couldn't let that happen. And thus I was invigorated to push myself out of my comfort zone and seek out connections with some new people in my life, even though I have not known them all that long. Or had not even met them at all, in a few cases.

The people I have not known so long ~ I made some plans with some of the friendly coworkers. We chatted and socialized - outside of work!

As for the people I had not even met? Well - I found some blogs. Interesting new blogs. Exciting part: the writers of these blogs live in cville. I left some comments. And got replies! I first found Kath. I was drawn into her blog thanks to the healthy recipes she frequently shares. She and her husband recently opened a bakery here. Her enticing photos of the bread led me to stop into the bakery one day, since it's on my way home from work. The bread was great. And she is quite friendly. Makes sense - from her blog, I could not help noticing how active she is, always on the go, even in this sleepy town. Maybe it's not always so sleepy? Continuing my blog hopping, I found Faith. She's a friend of Kath's, and she teaches dance classes. I heart dance! So when I saw that she was starting up a 6 week dance class series, featuring a mix of ballet, modern, and yoga - complete with choreography each week - I was hooked. I signed up.

So Tuesday, I ventured out to her first class. So much fun! In my post college years, I have not had nearly enough dancing in my life. I used to dance all the time. Not formally so much, but still - between the abundance of dance classes at my college (surprising for an engineering school!) and sorority talent shows and of course parties on the weekends, I managed to have some form of dance multiple times per week. I think this dance class was much needed. Especially because it is so darn hot that I can't even think about running these days.

The bonus of course is that as I said, Kath and Faith are friendly. Faith invited me to a party at her place the next day. Excitement abounds! It was very fun to meet some new people. The food was amazing of course (if you look at these blogs you'll see some great recipes; these girls know how to eat right!), and it was a nice summer night. You can even spot me in a pic from Kath's blog. I also met Allie, another blogger I found through Kath, who works at the bakery too. This was my first experience meeting people in real life who I found through blogs. Seems like it's not such a bad way to meet people!

Then rounding out my week of excitement, Kath told me about a "Brews and Views" event the next day (Thursday) ~ bluegrass and beer on the rooftop of an art gallery downtown. It was another beautiful summer night, and I invited some more coworkers along. It was a really fun night, complete with this impressive performance with a crazy homemade instrument. The next day my coworkers were thanking me for inviting them along.


So - good times last week. Steve got back from Paris and this week has been calmer in the evenings - work is keeping me really busy during the day and the heat wave combined with longer hours has led me to be on the lazy side in the evenings. But I am glad to know that cville can be happening, if I find the right people. It is a pretty unexpected result from a husband traveling abroad and blog hopping, but seems like it worked!