Friends

The weekend flew by, as weekends will do.  This weekend flew even faster since we went down to the Cape to visit one of Lionel's old friends, a person he hadn't seen for five years and I'd only met once five years ago and that at our wedding. 

Now that we Have Kids, our relationship with traveling, not to mention our relationships with other people, has changed.  We deliberately don't bring the world for the Bundle o' Joy, knowing that most if not all of what we bring she won't use.  But there's still some vital items, such as food, and things to prepare and eat the food with, which need to come with us.  Then we had to pack the dog and his belongings; and finally there was our stuff.

Still, we only left an hour later than we'd planned.

The friend has since married and had daughter, with another one on the way.  The interactions between the four of us flowed well and was friendly enough, but when I and the other woman were alone the conversation was forced and the silences somehow telling; she kept trying to engage me in girl talk and I don't even know what that is.

I muddle my way through the confusing twists and turns of a conversation which ranged from pregnancy, breastfeeding, being a working mother, and specific brands to shop for, but I don't think I fooled her.  She's an urbanite from New York City, and I'm a country bumpkin.  Had we had a little more in common, say if I knew where the cute little shop was on 44th and West, or she had occasionally gone fishing with her Dad while growing up, maybe we could have hit it off.   But when the unrepentant Tomboy meets up with the feminine ideal, the only thing which keeps the conversation going  is the fact that we're both in our thirties and have grown up a little bit.

Conversely, I hit it off with Lionel's friend immediately.  Late into the night we had a roaring conversation on politics and our life's philosophies, the type of conversation which knows no gender bounds.   The moral of the story is that there are friends that you have because they appeal to you, and there are the friends that you have which you make because you have to.  Everyone is friendly in the end.

tags: tomboy