A New Friend
I've mentioned in my little cronicle that although I am not wild about Omaha, we do have a lot of nice friends here. Too bad the place is so spread out and it's hard to see them!
Anyway, a new family moved to Omaha from, of all places, Manchester-By-The-Sea and now Jackie and have become fast friends. Finally I feel like there's someone else here who can really relate to the things I miss from the ocean to the accessability to the pedestrian lifestyle. Jackie, you are a Godsend! I do have a wonderful friend named Jen who actually stayed in my house in Boston when her little boy went there for surgery, so she "got it" but it's really great to have someone around who also says "where are the people???" in wonderous amazement like me.
But here's the really funny thing. Everyone says that people in the midwest (and Omaha) are so nice. While I might agree that they are nice, I do not think that they are particularly friendly. Here's what I mean..... Jackie's little boy Andrew goes to Sophie's school and has the same teacher that Sophie did last year when we moved to Omaha. Jackie worked with the same admissions director that I did as well, and neither of these people told her about me... something like, "....there was another family here from Boston and the mom stays home and let me introduce you... I'm sure she's love to show you around...". So here this poor woman was, alone in a new city with no one friends and to ask her out for coffee. It's a good thing I noticed her little boy's Patriot's hat and started up a conversation! Now I think she feels a little better about being out here since she's met me, and some of my friends but I think it's so sad that no one bothered to go out of their way to make this new family feel welcome. That's the same thing I went through. The only people who "welcomed" me, so to speak, were recent transplants from New York and New Jersey who were lonely too!
Neal thinks that it's more common that not to just mind your own business rather than make connections and draw people in, and that anyone would have run into that same thing in Charlestown. I think it goes back to my same frustration.....population density and lack of a pedestrian lifestyle. In Charlestown, our Mother's Group has 550 members and people walked around. If 10% of those people are outgoing and out and about, that's 55 people in a community that are willing to make new folks feel welcome and bring them into the loop. Here there are probably 350 families in the whole school, which leaves 35 people, many of which you never see because they just pick up their kids and drive away.
Sigh....... At least I now have Jackie, who also misses Dunkin Donuts! 'sniff!
I've mentioned in my little cronicle that although I am not wild about Omaha, we do have a lot of nice friends here. Too bad the place is so spread out and it's hard to see them!
Anyway, a new family moved to Omaha from, of all places, Manchester-By-The-Sea and now Jackie and have become fast friends. Finally I feel like there's someone else here who can really relate to the things I miss from the ocean to the accessability to the pedestrian lifestyle. Jackie, you are a Godsend! I do have a wonderful friend named Jen who actually stayed in my house in Boston when her little boy went there for surgery, so she "got it" but it's really great to have someone around who also says "where are the people???" in wonderous amazement like me.
But here's the really funny thing. Everyone says that people in the midwest (and Omaha) are so nice. While I might agree that they are nice, I do not think that they are particularly friendly. Here's what I mean..... Jackie's little boy Andrew goes to Sophie's school and has the same teacher that Sophie did last year when we moved to Omaha. Jackie worked with the same admissions director that I did as well, and neither of these people told her about me... something like, "....there was another family here from Boston and the mom stays home and let me introduce you... I'm sure she's love to show you around...". So here this poor woman was, alone in a new city with no one friends and to ask her out for coffee. It's a good thing I noticed her little boy's Patriot's hat and started up a conversation! Now I think she feels a little better about being out here since she's met me, and some of my friends but I think it's so sad that no one bothered to go out of their way to make this new family feel welcome. That's the same thing I went through. The only people who "welcomed" me, so to speak, were recent transplants from New York and New Jersey who were lonely too!
Neal thinks that it's more common that not to just mind your own business rather than make connections and draw people in, and that anyone would have run into that same thing in Charlestown. I think it goes back to my same frustration.....population density and lack of a pedestrian lifestyle. In Charlestown, our Mother's Group has 550 members and people walked around. If 10% of those people are outgoing and out and about, that's 55 people in a community that are willing to make new folks feel welcome and bring them into the loop. Here there are probably 350 families in the whole school, which leaves 35 people, many of which you never see because they just pick up their kids and drive away.
Sigh....... At least I now have Jackie, who also misses Dunkin Donuts! 'sniff!
posted by Betsy Paquelet Patrick at 12:17 PM
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