Just like an oil change renews the life of an internal combustion engine.........I've been using the website www.meetup.com as a virtual oil change for my social life. The main function of motor oil is to lubricate moving parts, it also cleans, inhibits corrosion, improves sealing and cools the engine. Man could I write paragraphs of analogies on all that! Suffice it to say, that my internal engine needed all that in the last few years, ha.
The meetup events this summer have been stellar and loaded with stories that I can retell at future events. Here's just a few:
There was the Writers Meetup where the members were all trying to get their work published. Some writers were creative and colorful with tats and piercings others were corporate types by day and writing chick lit and horror tales by night.
There was the singles dinner party at T.G.I.F. where the lone man at our table of 13 women leaned over and asked to finish eating my meal. It struck me as so funny that I had to shrug and say yes. Then when dessert came, he was quick to offer me the first bite of his cake.
We went camping with a single parents group in June. There were 3 families, 3 adults, and 5 kids. Their plans for some slow cooked chicken were going slowly and the kids were getting hungry so I took my one pound of hamburger, and like the multiplication of fishes and loaves in the Bible, I created a slew of tiny white castle burgers on the grill and filled their satisfied tummies.
In July I went to an outdoor festival with a meetup group to hear the Johnny Holm Band - renowned in Mpls for music and dancing. After introducing a few local celebrities that were among us Johnny asked all the meetup singles to wave their hands in advertisement of being single and we all screamed in surprise. Of all the gals and guys that came with our group, only my friend that I brought to the party actually met a great guy and has been happily dating ever since.
The best meetup so far was the sailing trip to Duluth. How crazy was it to commit to a 3 hour car ride with complete strangers for a day on the lake? Well crazy turned into fabulous as we laughed and dished and shared stories that wove us together as friends. I have this quote on my fridge: "risk is the price you pay for opportunity." That risk had a great payoff and now we're looking forward to more events.
I can clearly see that my friends on meetup are keeping my parts moving, cleaning up my ideas of fun, and totally inhibiting any corrosion on this engine. I feel like I'm 21 again and ready to take on the world. I’m finding that being
single doesn't mean being alone it means having choices and mustering up the
confidence to make a new choice every day.
Enjoy this tune by the Beatle's singing Revolution.....it's time for a change
