resolutions: day 6

Hello, all.  Hope the new year is treating you well!

It occurs to me that this past New Year's Eve marks the second for us where we went to bed around 9 o'clock (our early-morning wakings demand an old-people bedtime).  Since we've only been together on two NYE's, this means we have yet to count down to midnight together.  Oh, well.  One of these years we'll make it to midnight, I suppose.  As it is, we wake up the next morning, some of the world's only well-rested people, and wish each other a happy new year.  :)

I'm not real good at resolutions, but this year I have already been making good on my vow to get more quality time in with friends.  New Year's Day, I had coffee with Amber, a friend from work who I'd long been wanting to share conversation and hot beverages with.  (Her first child is due in March, and I'm completely unbiased in thinking that their name choice of "Justin" is a good one).  She is deeply fun to work with (and extremely funny), so it was a joy to get to know her better.

Justin and I had my favorite professor from last quarter, Michael, over for dinner on Friday night, which was a total blast, all nervousness about my cooking abilities aside.  It made me so happy to have Justin meet someone who made such a difference in my first quarter back to school.  They share a bit of common ground in that they're huge gamers, so it was truly amusing watching the conversation travel to a place where I was completely lost.  So funny.

In the above kinds of situations, where it involves taking a friendship from one sphere into another (i.e., from work to a coffee shop, from the classroom to our living room), it always feels like a bit of a leap to me.  What if it feels awkward or uncomfortable? I always think.  The reality is that it's never all that awkward, and it always ends up being so worth the leap to share conversation and laughter together, and get to know another person better.  So worth it.

Yesterday, I met Tracie, one of my bridesmaids, for lunch and shopping in downtown Seattle.  I am ashamed to say that I haven't seen her since my wedding (how did that happen?), but we made up for lost time, and it was lovely to pick right back up where we last left off.  Not all friendships are able to do that, and I find myself incredibly grateful for the ones that do -- lifelong friendships almost always have to play out this way if they are to survive and grow.  Incidentally, Tracie is one of my favorite shopping buddies, so this was fun on several levels.  We must have looked a little mad, stopping and standing in the middle of Old Navy for ten minutes at a time, fully engrossed in conversation, trying to catch up with each other's lives and happenings as fast as we could.  It was a lovely afternoon.

Some of Justin's friends Levi and Dave (also dudes from our wedding) came up to watch the Seahawks playoff game and crash at our place, and although I missed the game on TV, I was able to join in on both the celebrations and the moans and groans since I was listening to the game on the radio on my drive back up from Seattle.  It was actually really fun to share the game that way, calling back and forth for ten seconds or so after big plays.  Now I know why Justin and Chris watch games this way (Chris lives in California).

The challenge here is to keep this up once our lives get crazy again with school and work -- we know we're heading right back into some long days.  All I know is that my heart feels so full when we're spending time with good friends and sharing good words about good things together.  There's nothing like it, so we're working to make a solid place for it in our schedule and in our home (which is also a good thing because it motivates us to keep our place clean -- also a challenge when school is in full force).

Anyway, I'm going to go back to spending quality time with my sickie hubby, who is sniffling on the couch.  Be well and blessed, all.