Friends

Now that I'm nearly settled in Wasilla and all my "pieces" are getting in order, I'm also getting a bit restless for other key life items. I just need some patience and good things will come. What I struggle with during times I'm alone is a lack of quality friends...or friends at all. 

Don't get me wrong, I have dear friends down here. But they're in Anchorage. Jodi and I still marvel that after knowing each other for many years that we can now meet for lunch during the week. Other former Nomeites are relocated to South Central. That's great. And of course being with Andy is amazing and fun. But he works different hours than me and when he's unavailable, I don't have someone to grab and go to live music playing at the local book store. Going alone isn't always fun. I know I was spoiled when I lived with Nikki and we weaved our life's activities and company! 

I fully realize that friends will come in time, and I'm striving to meet people in social settings, but sometimes I flat-out feel a bit lonely. Good news is that being in Wasilla means I see people I normally wouldn't, or I can visit with Nome friends traveling through. Such was the case earlier this month:

This is Heather and we were freshmen year roommates in college (MN)! We saw each other for the first time in over six years during the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University-Alaska Alum dinner this month. Great story...I had moved to Nome in 2002 and about six months later I was given a message to call Heather at a 907-area code phone number. I called right away and said, "Heather! Where in Alaska are you??" She and her husband, Dylan, had just moved to Dillingham in the Southwest. At the time she began working at rural radio station, KDLG, as I was in my first year at KNOM. We marveled at our paths that led to the same college with the same degrees and then in Alaska doing a similar thing. It wasn't planned. Well, many years later, they're still in Dillingham teaching and I just moved from Nome. 

Did I mention that my former Nome roommate, Nikki, roomed with my first-year college roommate for six weeks one summer in Fairbanks? Yep! It was for their Masters in Education program. Nikki has seen more of Heather over the years than me! Anyway, she has a great laugh and a better spirit and I'm glad for the chance to reconnect...in person.

I have kindred spirits (an Anne of Green Gables reference) all over Alaska, but none in the neighborhood or across town...for now.

*Amy