In Search of New Friends

My brain has been on stuck mode the last couple of weeks. Author Mccloskey Speaks wrote in her post last week “I Got Nothing”, I had to commiserate. I’ve been in that same frame of mind. It’s like swimming through Jello. My mind is mush.

Two weeks ago, I started two new writing classes at a neighboring senior center. My local center didn’t have one. On Wednesday afternoon, it’s a creative writing class and I’ve discovered that I don’t do well with 3 minutes to write on a prompt. It’s the Jello again. Even the weekly assignments leave me with a vacuum where my brain once resided. The second is a memoir writing class. Should be easy enough, right? The prompts once again left me struggling for any memory of that particular experience.

Turtle looking at the pond

The challenge is good for my brain that is slowly repairing itself from years of intense stress that ended with the Bells Palsy. For the first two years after I came down with it, I could not complete a simple sentence. Everyone around me played charades. I pointed like a two-year old or beat my head looking for a simple word. These writing exercises are just that; brain exercise.

Fairy garden back

The other reason I signed up for the classes is that I am new enough in the area that I have yet to make friends. There seems to be a large turnover of young people in my apartment complex and though I’ve become acquainted with my neighbors, four of the apartments right by mine, have been vacated. Winter is over. Spring is making things lush and lovely once again. Here in Oregon, it’s really lovely all year. I’m hoping warmer, drier weather brings everyone out to get acquainted. I met one lady here who seems nice enough. She asks a lot of favors and doesn’t say thank you, so I’m giving the friendship some thought.

Chicks & Hens with Buddha

Buddha close up

In the meantime I’ve done a little container gardening trying my hand at a fairy garden. The outcome is irrelevant to the process. I got hooked after reading Gardening Nirvana’s post on Fairy Garden Frivolity.It has been so much fun and next week when there is real sunshine once again, (I can hardly wait) maybe I’ll do a little more playing in the dirt. Hopefully, I can then sit on my upstairs deck and see more than ducks go by. It really is hard making new friends when you are old, single, quirky and have moved too much. But I will persevere. My daughter needs a break.

Tumpta reading a book

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” ― Mark Twain

From my heart to yours,
Marlene Herself