This is such a good idea for a thread.
I'll join, too.
I have the sort of planner that is very organized and encourages you to write out your goals for lifetime, 3-year, 1-year, and 3-month "deadlines." Last year, I wrote that one of the things that was important to be was making friends. Well, for my 2018 planner, I didn't, because I want to be razor-focused on my other goals (mostly related to career, money, and travel). But now I feel like it's not good to *not* strive for this goal, too. Even though I am an introvert and can enjoy being at home, it's still important to cultivate relationships and memories. This is going to come off as a little bit weird, but last year I got engaged and I didn't really think too much about it. Then we started wedding planning, and when it came to the guest list, I felt weird about who I would invite because I'm truly the worst at keeping in touch with people, I realized! We always have those friends that you can pick up where you left off, but still, we want this to be a fun party/celebration full of friends, not acquaintances. I have some people that I might consider friends, but wonder if they're friends "enough" to invite to a wedding. Don't get me wrong, I don't want friends as accessories to a wedding. It's just that this life event that is supposed to be filled with joy and relationships (to me, anyway) and this is an excellent motivator to keep current friendships going or turn fledgling relationships into definite friendships. I'm kind of strict at the idea of who is considered a true friend, too. I feel like most people just consider everyone they meet a friend (e.g. facebook friends), but I don't, so that makes it more complicated for me.
Other than the lifetime relationships thing, I also just want to be a nice, good ol', well-rounded person. I would describe myself as a friendly person and really don't mind talking to strangers. But when it comes to hanging out... ugh. The whole money-spending thing really gets me.
Some things I'm doing or plan to:
- I accepted an invitation with coworker-friends to go rock climbing on account of free passes, but then remembered the shoe rentals are not free so I declined and explained I'm trying to save money for the wedding and stuff... but instead of just declining and not saying anything else, I offered to do a board game night instead, or a dining out event to a restaurant we talked about before that they might want to try. We have also discussed starting a book club, so I will try to bring that up again when we do board game night. I am working on being honest and not secretive about saving money, because when I have declined invitations and have been up to doing my own things and being busy with that with zero explanation, people legitimately started to think I didn't like them anymore.
- Plan a visit my sister and her kids. Yup, I'm so introverted, I sometimes don't even talk to my family that much. lol... anyone else like this? Maybe I will bake snickerdoodles with my niece. :) Realllly need to spend more time with the kids so they actually remember who I am!!
- Need to arrange a girl's day with a friend I don't really hang out with often because she lives in another city! I just wanted to mention, in case anyone needs ideas, I met this person on girlfriendsocial.com, which is strictly a website for women who are looking for friendship.
- My dental hygienist is really cool, and every time I got get my teeth checked out or cleaned, she is SO fun to talk to and we have a lot in common. Sometimes we just talk a bunch before even getting to the actual work, ha! I would love to hang out with her, she seems very interesting and relatable. At my next appointment, I should try to talk about some of our interests (like photography) and see if we could do something together outside of the dental office related to that! This sounds funny to me because it's so premeditated...
- Try to hang out a couple friends from middle school. Now these are the type who you can just pick up where you left off... in that case, "left off" was the early years of college... oops. It's difficult, too, because of the whole different cities thing, but it's not that far... I really need to make an effort!!
- Maybe plan to go hang out with coworker-friend based on invitation to go to a running event. I balked at the price of admission at any length of run and she mentioned we could just cheer them on and hang out afterward and explore the city. I might do that. This is next month, which at least, is enough notice to plan to use some $$ on food that day?
- Could also plan a pot luck/dinner party. I have hosted one before with coworkers and it was fun. But that was a long time ago, so we are overdue. I also used to organize a coworkers brunch, but it's hard when you're vegan to find brunch places, lol. Maybe change this event to a dinner thing since there are more options.
- Maybe reach out to a friends-couple that we met in the last city we used to live! It was honestly such a bummer having to move because we just met them and were hanging out and having a lot of fun. Plus, how often do you cultivate friendships as a COUPLE? You always have friends that have significant others, but it's different when you're all just genuinely friends all around. They really SUCK at text messages, though, which is part of the reason why we haven't kept in touch. Maybe we can make a plan to visit this city and meet up with all friends that live there? :/ I will send a text and put it out there. If nothing happens, then at least I tried!