Connections

Today while I was standing in line at the grocery store, the bagger started a conversation with the customer ahead of me. When that customer left, the bagger looked to me and said, "That was awkward. She was the mother of my sister's ex-boyfriend." Awkward indeed. But it got me thinking about all the people that have come in and out of my life over the years. Ex's, acquaintances, business partners, neighbors, kid's parents, teachers, etc. So many people, so little time.

Being a people person I have a hard time NOT keeping in touch with everyone I've met/know but that is virtually impossible. Even with Facebook and social media (where we virtually keep in touch with everyone from elementary school friends to someone you met in a yoga class last week) virtual relationships are just not the same as getting to BE with the ones you love and spending quality time with them. The older I get, the more people I've accumulated in my life that I now feel I must keep in touch with and feel bad when I haven't seen them for long periods of time. Sometimes I think about having parties just to have everyone over at the same time. Now that my husband and I have children, it's harder to keep up with our relationships. Our kids have sports and dance classes and school events. We spend our time carting them around and relationship "up-keep" ends up looking like texts and voicemails on the run! I guess facebook isn't as bad as I thought in that respect.

I long for girl trips (been trying to schedule THAT for a few years now), reunions, and date nights. There really just isn't enough time. So what's a people person to do? I wish I had the answer. Sometimes I get reminiscent  and think about days long by...a guy I dated in high school, or a girlfriend I had in college. What happened to my friends I did theater with? Wouldn't it be fun to have a reunion with everyone from my old sketch comedy group?

Maybe it's a good thing we loose touch with certain people. We all grow and evolve and the people we meet at different places in our lives reflect where we are at that time. Maybe it's good for people to remember you as they did. (or not?!) That way, we can become the people we want to be and not look back in our shadow of what we were?

Still, there's still a part of me that longs to "keep it all together". Be the social butterfly that can see all my friend's performances, watch my kid's games and recitals and still find time to have date night with my husband and take that girl's trip to wine country...Hey, a girl can dream right?!

How do you keep up with all your friends, family and everyone else in between?