Company Picnics and Making Friends

A few weeks ago, I went to J's company picnic. Despite having lived in LR for nearly 2 years, I had not yet met anyone he worked with, so I was kind of interested to put some faces with the names.  However, I assumed that I would be meeting these folks with J as a buffer - you know, to do introductions and silly things like that.  The joke was on me.

As it turned out, I ended up taking the kiddos and going it alone.  Oh the irony - J had to work that Saturday.  So I'm going to show up at this picnic, kids in tow, not knowing a soul.  Yay.  The kiddos immediately scattered to the big bouncy things that they all gravitate towards, and I forced conversation on someone who turned out to be something akin to J's boss.  I'm standing there, chatting about this and that, and he mentions all the places he has lived, including a stint in Houston for a few years.  We talked about that for a while, and he commented that LR is by far the friendliest place he's ever lived.  His neighbors are great, people talk to you without having an ulterior motive, and he and his wife are just blown away by how nice the people are.

Hmmmm.  I had to think about that.
See, while it IS a very nice place to live, and while I've met very nice people here, and while people may be more polite and friendly here than other places, it's been difficult to cultivate good friendships.  I know that it takes a while to form a group of friends after you move to a new place, but somehow I thought it would be easier here.  I've introduced myself to people at t-ball games and soccer games, and been met with limp handshakes and confused/frightened looks.  This was the norm where we used to live - that's just how you did things.  You struck up a conversation, shook hands and introduced yourself.  Maybe it was the business world, maybe it was the neighborhood we lived in, but that's just how it worked.  That didn't mean you were going to be lifelong friends - or even good friends.  But at least you could find common ground and hold a conversation for half an hour or so. 

It's a little different where we live now, and to be honest, it sort of threw me for a loop.  It's a slower pace of life, and a lot of people have lived here their entire lives.  Even though we grew up here, I still feel like sort of an outsider.  In thinking about it, I was probably a little too aggressive on the "playing nice" part...  But whatever the case, it felt much more difficult to strike up a casual conversation.

Anyway.  At the end of our first year back in LR, we were invited to a crawfish boil by a friend we knew from high school.  She and her husband throw one every year, and we thought we'd go, make an effort to be social, and see what happened.  At this point, I tried not to force conversation on most folks, because I seemed to scare people off.

So J and I went to this event sometime in October last year; it was outside at dusk, in their backyard, with a Hogs game going in the background.  It was a really nice set up, with a ton of people, and perfect, crisp fall air.  The very definition of football weather.  J and I stood around for a while getting a drink and some food.  I found a couple of chairs at a table that had several people already sitting at it, and sat down to eat.  I'll be damned if the lady sitting to my right didn't immediately turn around, stick her hand out for a handshake, introduce herself, and start a conversation.  After a few minutes, I got a few words in and asked her what she did.  Her response?  Attorney. 

Huh.  Maybe it's just in our blood.