I forget

I forget that it's winter. Here along the coast, we have our [relatively] cold snap in January. By the time Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, we're ready for a warm-up. Trees are already budding out. It seems like spring has sprung... until you have to take a trip somewhere. There are road conditions to check, chains to worry about, appropriate clothing to think about - and that's just for a trip to another part of northern California!

I forget that I make friends differently than other people. We went to a housewarming last night. That's the type of social interaction I will never get comfortable with. When I was growing up, the people who visited our house were people that my parents had known all of THEIR lives. New people are scary. I've never understood my cousin, who can move into a new place and instantly make a thousand or so new friends - a trait I first noticed in her when we were five years old. What struck me last night was not that I'm not good meeting new people [duh], but that I'm not particularly good at maintaining casual acquaintances. I knew (in the sense of having met more than twice previously) at least a quarter of the people at the party, but I was still clearly out of my element. None of these people were my friends. When I'm friends with someone, I expect that I will talk to them at least weekly, if not daily. We will have the type of relationship where we can just drop by each other's residences unannounced. We will be able to talk to each other about ANYTHING. I really don't know how to have any other type of friendship.