thebitterbabe

Last week I ran into an old friend I haven’t seen in a good ten years. She’s several years younger than me and has always been a cool, alternative type. She married and had a couple of kids quite some time ago.

We friended each other on Facebook, and I found that her pictures are the same array that I see with both sorority girls and tatted-up chicks alike: a bunch of photos of the kids, several with mom holding the kids, one photo with the whole family with dad as a barely discernible blur in the background, and one or two photos from the wedding. That is so different from my Facebook photos, which are all from parties or travels or events. Interestingly, when I clicked on the dad’s Facebook page, there were no pictures of the kids!

When I asked her about some of our mutual acquaintances, her answers all began (and mostly ended with) s/he got married or s/he is still with her boyfriend/girlfriend or s/he has a new partner. I was reminded of the prominence of that theme here, and how it was a big reason I had become so antsy to move away as a single woman in my thirties. It seems to me that relationship status was not as big a deal in L.A., but then I lived in the central city, near Hollywood.

I will have to guard against getting bored here in the same way again. As long as I stay focused on hobbies and certain kinds of community engagement, hopefully I’ll be okay. If I stay unemployed, I plan to get on that organic farm next month!