Little Miss Socialite

I had a very social day on Thursday, it was fantastic to catch up with old friends, meet new people and spend a good deal of the day outside. 

First I met a friend whose kids went to elementary school with mine. She’s in the process of transitioning into a new career, so we had a long talk about the different changes that we’ve gone through raising our kids, taking on different careers, and what we wanted in our lives going forward. She is yet another person who’s made big changes in her life and part of that has included physically getting rid of things that she no longer needs. I am seeing this as a definite trend when women focus on what’s next for them in their lives. You have to let go of what was part of your old life in order to make space for your new life. We also found out that we went to the same school for undergrad graduating only one year apart. For my fellow UCSB gauchos, she lived on DP as a sophomore! Thats hardcore.

After that I met my hiking buddy Julie. It was a sunny but breezy day at the Martinez marina, just right for getting out for lunch time stroll. It was a treat for both of us to be able to walk together in the middle of the week, but it was strange to see her in work clothes 🙂

In the afternoon I met Heidi, who was referred to me because when she was 45 she sold her house, bought an RV and traveled around the US and Mexico. She had originally planned to travel for a year, but ended up on the road for five years! I loved reading her book, Confessions of a Middle-aged Runaway, and was especially intrigued with the different ways she was able to bring in some income while she traveled. I learned more about her adventures and what she has done since. She definitely inspired me to keep doing what I’m doing. She is my role model! On my way out of the coffee shop. I saw that there’s a cute little putt golf course in Martinez. That would be fun to check out one day.

Finally later in the afternoon I visited with my college roommate, Stacy. She recently had hip replacement surgery, and I wanted to come by to drop off a few books and catch up. She’s recovering really well from the surgery, though frustrated with how long it is taking. Stacy is a very busy person who likes to get things done and she’s not too keen about the fact that she has to use a walker to get around as well as other assistive appliances that are generally used by a much older cohort. But ultimately when she gets the other hip replaced later in the year it will make a huge difference in her ability to get out and be active. Like me, Stacy loves to hike and walk and is looking forward to enjoying those activities free of pain. I got to hear all about their fantastic trip to Greece and Italy, which they took just before she had the surgery, and we got caught up on our lives in general. We had a yummy pizza dinner outside, they have a beautiful garden. One of the plants was starting to bloom with a huge stock in the middle and tines that looked like asparagus, it was fascinating. Before I knew it, five hours had flown by and it was dark outside! I feel so lucky to still have my college roommates in my life, more than 35 years after we met as freshman.

On my way home I was reminded how things can change so quickly. The traffic merging onto 580 westbound slowed down suddenly and I could see there were 2 cars pulled off onto the divider between highways 80 and 580. The reason we were slowing down was that a third car had spun out and was in the middle of the two lanes on 580 facing the wrong way. The driver didn’t seem to be harmed, but was obviously very scared, as there was no way for him to safely get out of his car or turn it around so he had to just sit there and hope that the police would arrive before anything else happened to his car. I can’t imagine how scary that must’ve been. It sure made me take my time and pay extra attention for the rest of the drive.