Trying To Join In

Today I had lunch with six women from town. We ate at a local diner, one of a handful of businesses on Main Street. I had a cup of beef barley soup.

A friend I made last summer first introduced me to this group of retired women by way of a monthly book club. Those meetings have not fit into my schedule since December, and today was the first time I was able to accept an invitation to lunch. I like these women.

Talk inevitably turned to grandchildren, husbands who are retired, mothers in nursing homes, and vacation trips. These are not things we have in common.

Someone commented that she liked my hair, that it was flattering. Someone else mentioned that I looked dressed up. I told her I was practicing for the day I go back to work. She chuckled. She asked me what I wanted to do, and I told her I was interested in policy work. She asked me if I knew a woman in town with the same interest, and I told her that in fact I met that woman in a class I took two years ago.

It was my turn to ask her how the plans were coming for the plant sale, a fund raiser for the library. I went to a planning meeting one evening last week to find that it had been cancelled, but no one told me. It was rescheduled for last night, but no one told me that either. She said that plans are on schedule. I said that I guessed that I would find a group where I could be of help. She said that the same people have been doing the sale for so long that they know what needs to be done.

It would be nice to get to know the "Friends of the Library" because some of those women are working or in the process of changing careers. A few of that group have lived in town for decades, but more are new to town within the last ten years or so. I am looking forward to getting to know them better. There is a general library meeting at the end of April, and I will plan to go because I'm still trying to join in.

At lunch today someone loaned me a book about plants and flowers. My book club friends know a lot about gardening and have offered to help me when I begin work on our yard.

In the meantime we are getting new neighbors next door. Ken is curious - he spied a John Deere tractor in their driveway.