Making Friends

On Thursday, April 4^th, I met a group of people who will be integral in my life for the next two years. Included in this group are eight other people over 50, and 18 in their 20s and 30s, mostly 20s. Lots of new faces, new names, new personalities to learn all at once. It was a whirlwind of introductions, information and soft-skills training. A whopping six and a half hours of being bombarded and trying to keep people and their stories straight. That evening a dozen of us roamed Eye Street Southeast (in DC) looking for dinner, and we ended up at The Banana Leaf, a raucous, brightly-colored restaurant specializing in food from Puerto Rico and Cuba. Some ropa vieja and tostones under my belt (shared with my roommate, Amy), we were feeling pretty exhausted and headed back to the hotel. One final episode of Scandal and I was done-in. Friday morning we all filtered by ones and twos down to the hotel restaurant where there was a breakfast buffet. On the elevator I turned to a familiar face and asked if he’d slept well. He was very congenial and responded positively…a perfectly lovely exchange. Having eventually sat down to eat, though, I looked up and in walks the person I thought I had been talking to in the elevator. Yeah. I had been asking a complete stranger if he slept well. He was gracious enough to go with the flow, saving my face. Once I realized, I laughed it off. Hey, I’m old, yeah? I’ve got Donny Osmond song lyrics in my head…no room for all of these new faces and names! So Amy and some of the other young women and I are eating, and I go to make some toast at the buffet, when I see another familiar face. I animatedly said to this young lady, “good morning!” Not as gracious as the stranger in the elevator, she was startled then proceeded to glare at me. I went back to the table and fessed-up to Amy and the girls, and we all had a good laugh at Leigh the Friend-Maker. Here’s to the next two years.