I didn’t understand or prioritize this nearly enough. It’s something I think about a lot.

For the first twenty years or so of our business, we had a retail storefront where our regular customers would hang out, and we established many long-term friendships and socialized a lot. The neighborhood where we had our house was also a very social environment, with lots of block parties and such. People sat outside, walked, and created relationships. The last decade or so we closed the office and only work remotely, and we moved to a new city in a condo environment. The human connections have dwindled considerably and it is a real challenge to change that.

There are a few ways I could improve that. East Side Dems (east Ft. Lauderdale political group) is very active with lots of meetings and activities, including weekly protests and such. A good way to meet like-minded people. As far as condo socializing goes, if I went to the beach/pool at the same time every day I would interact with the same people daily. Same thing with the gym here, I could find the courage to put up a note for a gym buddy. See also, going to the same gym classes at the area gyms on a regular basis. I'm no longer in shape to join any of the biking or walking clubs that frequent A1A in front of my place, but maybe at some point.

And here I sit on my computer. Sigh. At least we have the condo Happy Hour BYOB gathering tonight where I will see people. And I promise to go to the pool this afternoon sometime,

I didn’t understand or prioritize this nearly enough. It’s something I think about a lot.

That's one thing I'm glad I did recognize for myself early on; even when I moved away from DC, my goal was always to move back, because this is where my closest friends are. And my family is within a few hours' drive, too, so I'm lucky.

I do really think about how to maintain connection as I age -- my goal is to be like my 87 y.-o. aunt who plays bridge several times a week, still goes to her beach house for several months out the year where she's built a whole other community + host various and sundry of her friends and family, and has good ties with her kids, me, her other nieces and nephews, grandkids, etc... and lots of her friends kids, too -- she's a multi-generational icon! (I mean, I don't have a beach house or kids, but, you know... I took a stab at learning bridge a while back!)

Anyway -- she's 30 years older than I am, and I'm 30 years older than my niece, so I have a goal of maintaining my relationship with my niece just the way my aunt did with me. She's definitely one of the most important relationships in life, and her perspective has been invaluable to me over the years.

My life is too much structure, not enough community. This is not, especially, a friendly place(Or maybe these aren't my people. Which feels greedy to say because my family is here and neighbors do help me out, but we're in different places--it's not going to get beyond chit-chat.) I think people come here to escape what came before, not to build things.(and, when I was young, it was cheap to live. Now, not so much.)

Not that I don't try...but Zoom just either isn't the same or it's all work. There's this thing that my supervisor says every Sunday about "reveling in being surrounded by people who get it," Which, you know, five years ago felt easier because a. I was just eager to talk to somebody who didn't know where my freckles are, right? and 2.I am relatively surrounded by anti-vax sentiment here, so, like, in that sense they did "get it" more. But, now, affectionate teasing of him aside, I find myself thinking "That thing that he describes...have I ever truly felt that, ever?" and I have to say mostly not. Maybe for a little while in either my biggest Crip Power period(Now that I'm not in that, I can say I was annoying and fully overcompensated in the manner of every convert, ever. As sorry as I am that we didn't fully change the world for summer '93) or in the earlier days of my time as a Buffista, when we all had more time to play. And I really do like the PDA people, but they know and like Me as Activist and they, you know, live with the other parts of my package and personality, not really that they love them. They want the machine, the one who pretends she likes showing up ten weekends in a row.