Thursday, July 21, 2011

Getting to know the community.

Back home in Georgia, one of my favorite things to do was to invite the girls over for a lunch date.   Not because I'm a gourmet by any means, but because I had a love for entertaining and being around my girls.  

For the most part, these lunches were during the school year... for obvious reasons.  

The fewer kids, the more adult conversation we could get in.

And who doesn't love a little adult conversation?

Since I've been here in Arizona, I haven't met many friends, but the few ladies I do know, I decided to invite over for lunch today.  

Didn't happen.  Had to cancel when Hubs told me he needed a chaperone to his MRI.  Since there were no other options, I had to take the job.

Lunch cancelled.

Well, my neighbor didn't get my 2 voicemails and the 1 text message I left on her cell and she came over with a plate of yaki mandu.  If you've never tried this dish you need to RUN to the closest Korean restaurant and place an order for at least a dozen!  

Anywho, I was very apologetic for not having the lunch and not getting the message to her about the cancellation.  But I assured her that her yaki mandu would NOT go to waste!

I told her that I would reschedule and she was more than happy to hear that.  She started telling me how lonely she was and how for the first 4 months of her living here on Ft. Huachuca, she didn't talk to ANYONE.  She told me that now, other than the people at her church, she really doesn't know anyone in this area except me.

She's been here a little longer than I have. 

Now, last week, I decided to start a Facebook page called Huachuca Wives.  I wanted to put together a page that illustrated all of the things that there are to do in this small community and the near by areas.  I wanted to put together a page where spouses could meet other spouses, form friendships and share information.  It's hard to live in a small, community in the middle desert and it's hard to find things to do.

I'm starting to gain members.  I'm up to 29, which is great.  There was one comment similar to the conversation with my neighbor where a wife here on Ft. Huachuca talked about how she'd been here (...) months and she hadn't met many people.  This got my wheels turning.  There has to be many more that feel this way.  There has to be many spouse that just want to get out of the house and meet people, right?

So the page will offer tons of community information.  I spend the better part of my morning after my walk looking for things to do in the community to share with others  I also hope to get some of these ladies together soon.  We'll see.  For now, I want to focus on getting the word out of things to do in the area.  I know how it is when you have days where you just seem trapped in the house in the middle of the desert.

I'm already glued to the internet for many many hours of the day, so I figure why not use my love for social media to help others, well, push away from the social media table and get to know their community?

2 comments:

KCSherri said...

You are amazing! What a great idea.... I love how you are being proactive and not just sitting around moping that you don't know very many people...you are MY kind of woman!

Think about forming some clubs...a walking club, golf club, Bunko club, reading club, play group, family game night - that might get some of the spouses out of their houses...!

Unknown said...

You could form your own meetup group. Go to Meetup.com. Sounds like you're settling in pretty good.