Winds of Change

I feel things are turning a corner here in Albuquerque, as far as being more personally connected to this place. Since we moved here, we've had several offers from the nice gals Clark works with, and the couple people we know here to come to various birthday parties and such. I'm terrible, but I always managed to find something else we needed to be doing, and hadn't taken anyone up on their offers. I wasn't ready to meet people, I guess. Well, this weekend, all that changed. I went out Saturday for a girl's night that sweet Julia invited me to, and spent the morning Sunday at the Corrales Harvest Festival with Lea and her 2 boys.

Julia is Victor's girlfriend, and Victor is an old friend of mine from college who I was thrilled to find out lives here. She had offered to introduce me to her friend Elena who's been working in the psych department at UNM for many years, and our schedules finally lined up. Elena is a very cool chick, and gave me tons of good advice about my future scholastic and career goals. I very much needed the opinion of someone with experience in the field, and am so grateful to Julia for being persistent in setting up a meeting. We had a lovely meal, and some laughs, and I wasn't a complete dork, I hope.

Lea works with Clark. She is the sweetie who ended up watching our kids for the Dave Matthews concert last month. She's been inviting us over almost every weekend since then, so it was about damn time I stopped being a jerk and showed up for something. Clark was on his way to Chicago Sunday, so it was just her and I and the kids. I get really good vibes from Lea. She's divorced, and doing the working single mom thing, which I can't even imagine, and she's funny and fun, and hasn't lived here all that long. For someone who hasn't lived here that long she sure seems to know a lot of people, though. Every time we turned around she was introducing me to another mom with little ones in tow. Her boys go to a Montessori school in Corrales, so I think most of them were friends from school. They all seemed like my kind of peeps, here in Albuquerque, will wonders never cease.

We also found TWO (count em, TWO) new babysitters. Marissa watched the kids for us Friday night, so Clark and I could go on a real date. She's college-aged, very sweet, and came highly recommended. Kelly (who is the nice lady I cancelled on a couple weeks back) actually called me on Sunday and asked if I needed her Monday night. That's right, a babysitter CALLED ME. I had been intending to call her, but had got caught up in the painting and forgot. She came over so I could go to yoga Monday night. She's a little older, and is a childcare professional, and the kids LOVED her. She even offered, before I could ask, to come over again next time I needed her.

So, the winds of change are blowing through our little household, and it is a very good thing. I'm so relieved to have at least a couple people I can turn to for help with the kids. And, while I'm still terrified of the making new friends thing, it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. Now, I must get back to the painting, I've been avoiding it since my painting marathon on Sunday, but I think my body has recovered enough to get back to it.

I also downloaded that 'hello' program last night and sent a bunch of pics to Boobecca. So, now I need to figure out how to send them to my blog. One thing at a time. It does seem much easier though, so hopefully I can figure it out.