Megan acts like a big girl

The subtitle to this blog is 'daily thoughts from an almost adult.' Even though my 30th birthday nears every day, my baby is one year old, and my next anniversary will be my 6th, I still feel like a kid, not an adult. Who knows when I will become a real adult - maybe home ownership?? Thanks to the volatility of the current job market, adulthood then will probably be a long time coming : ) In the meantime, here are some ways I am trying to be a big girl:

1) Trying to make friends as an adult

College was pretty awesome for making friends. I lived on the 'substance free' hall my freshman year, which meant that I was around a bunch of other socially inept, nerdy girls (sorry Becky...but you would probably agree with me). I remember making my friend Kara when we had a cookout the first week of class with the sub-free boys hall. Of course, none of the boys and girls were talking to one another, but I talked to Kara, and I think we agreed to walk together to the Honor Code signing that night or something. I became friends with my husband when we were on a leadership team together. I honestly think I became friends with Becky because she had a TV in her room, and Kara and I would go there in our pajamas every Thursday night at 9pm to watch ER. Yes, a college freshman in her pjs at 9pm. Since I didn't move out of town after college, I kept all of my college friends and then made a few church friends and work friends because we had that in common - church or work.

Now that I am in a new place, I am trying to make new friends. I think I'm doing okay at making church friends - slowly but surely getting to know people better and share our lives. But I really need to branch out and make some non-church friends. I need to make some running friends, although runners tend to be a little weird. Rogue had been advertising a pub run for a few weeks, and I finally decided to go to it. The event consisted of meeting at an old theater in Austin, running a little over a mile to a bar for beer, running back to the theater for more beer and a showing of "Run, Fat Boy, Run." All for $10! So I signed up, hoping that the two girls I have had conversations with while running would show up. Unfortunately, Tuesday night it was freakin' cold!!! I mean, seriously cold! The temperature was 25 but with windchill it was 13. I went ahead and bundled up and headed out. The two people I knew were not there - no surprise. The only people there were hard core marathoners and a couple of other doe eyed newbies like myself. I had a pretty awesome run, mainly because I was freakin' cold and just wanted to get somewhere with heat! On the way to the bar, I ran a bit with a few other newbie running group folks, but they were all in the group below me, so I ran a lot faster than they did. Once we got to the bar, I grabbed my beer, took off a few layers, and tried to make adult friends. I chatted with the two folks I had run with, but one girl had other friends there, so she pretty much ignored me, and the other guy was about as introverted as I am. So I went and stood in the corner of the bar texting Becky and Jonathan. Finally someone had pity on me and started talking to me. He actually said something like, "You look like you don't know anyone here either." Jim was very nice. We talked about our kids, our running careers (he has run 11 marathons, including one two days earlier when it was 85 degrees and not 25), and he offered to run back to the theater with me. Once back at the theater, he introduced me to Jan, another girl he runs with. They invited me to sit with them during the movie, and I felt less like a loser.

So there you have it, I tried to make adult friends and I ran in subfreezing temperatures : )

2. Wearing contacts

I didn't wear glasses until I was about 25, and there was no way I was going to get contacts. You mean actually touch my eye?? No thank you! Now that I have a son who likes to grab things, and I am running more, my glasses were starting to get in the way. So I plunked down A LOT of money (why does optical insurance not cover the actual hardware???) and got contacts. This morning at 8am, I dragged myself out of the house, walked in the freezing wind to the optometrist's office, and learned how to put contacts in. About five minutes into it, I told the sweet office manager, "You know what? I'll just keep my glasses!" She was very patient and encouraging, and in about 5 more minutes, I had my contacts in. I kept telling myself, "You gave birth, you can put contacts in your eyes." Then I reminded myself that I didn't really actually give birth; I painlessly had some surgeons remove my child because my body refused to go into labor. I did finally successfully put in, remove, and re-put in my contacts. Uggh! What an awful process!! But, as I walked home, I was amazed at how crisp and clear the world looked. It has taken all the self control in the world to not rub my eyes today, and I'm sure I'll have a minor breakdown tonight when I try to take them out. But I do feel a bit more like a grown up, and everyone assures me that putting contacts in and taking them out gets much easier with practice.

And now I'm off to go run again in the cold! I'm not sure whether that is adult behavior or not : )