Saturday started as a dreary, cold day. In an attempt to brighten things up I invited a few traveler friends of mine out to brunch to a cute French cafe (Cafe Brioche). Since this summer I've been on an eggs benedict kick and theirs did not let me down. After a very large mug of coffee I was feeling a little more optimistic about the day's possibilities. I went home and made numerous phone calls back East while attempting to make Irish soda bread for a dinner I was going to that evening. I went out on a limb and rspv'd to a group email inviting me over to a late St. Patty's Day dinner. I volunteered to bring something and was assigned bread, after a quick google search of "what bread do you serve with corned beef and cabbage" I had to decide between rye or Irish soda bread. I had plenty of time on my hands and decided to try out a new recipe (which turned out to be a success-phew!) and at the same time making lots of phone calls back East. I feel like my voice betrays who I've just talked to as it transitions into my tri-state no accent when talking to my family, but then takes on a Southern twang when talking to my south of the Mason Dixon line friends. My last call before leaving was to NC, so with Southern drawl on pitch and fresh from the oven bread I headed off to a houseful of strangers.
It's always a little unnerving going somewhere for the first time, especially when you don't know who will be on the other side of the door. Until last night I'd never met any of the people I'm now calling my "newest friends", we'd only corresponded over email. I could not have been welcomed by a friendlier group of people or had a better first experience with corned beef and cabbage. Conversation was easy, the company nice, and it was enjoyable to spend time with non-hospital people (sorry girls!). After a cozy fireside chat we dashed through the rain just two houses down to "Graceland". It seems that there are several houses in this area that kind of rotate various members from Grace Pres throughout the years and I guess with all the changing of roomates each year it's easier to say "let's meet at the Bungalow". Graceland was serving ice cream, left over from a previous event, and it drew quite the crowd. I think I met close to 30 people last night and the introductions went something like this "Hey, this is Lindsey" and then inevitably someone would say "Are you kraftsingle@gmail.com?". (If you read a few posts back I had emailed this group of strangers looking for ideas on where to watch Duke games and it seems my email addy has made quite the impression on them!). It was great though and the best thing is that I've made several non-hospital friends, and dare I say some non-female friends from the fellowship last night AND this morning I walked into church actually knowing several people! It makes a world of difference.
To update you on the strike situation: It looks like I'll be able to finish out my contract here, but I am not planning to extend at this time. I really like the area, AND really am excited about this new group of friends, but I don't want to be involved in the strike and am planning on coming back once the hospital and union get things settled, or moving to San Fran possibly. We'll see. It's still too early to think about!
No comments:
Post a Comment