Joining a community
Last night we were taken out for happy hour and subsequent dinner at the local bistro. It’s really a great place with fancy food and drinks all around.
So Thursday is clearly a special night at the local Inn and I suppose that yesterday was an even more special occasion as it was (either intentionally or unintentionally) marking our arrival to a town and a community that is waking from its winter slumber.
Truthfully, I have never felt more like a celebrity.
After an article in the local newspaper noting the arrival of A, there is seemingly a unanimous outpouring of positive emotion directed in her (and vicariously, my) general direction.
There is a local film society. They screen more independently focused fare at the local Grange, a community meeting place. I met some of the members of that board who were genuinely excited at the idea of a documentary filmmaker living amongst them. Flattery, it seems, will get you everywhere.
So with landing in a new place as an adult AND especially if it’s a small, tight knit place, one must tread very carefully. Relationships that have been cultivated over many, many years present themselves to you in the form of banter and chit chat at the local happy hour. It is of the upmost importance to read between the lines and to pick up on social cues presented to you. My only fear is that I picked up on none of them.
Eh, it’ll all work out, I am sure.
