mschatelaine (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mschatelaine) wrote2009-04-24 09:52 pm
mschatelaine) wrote2009-04-24 09:52 pm
Touched
I used the LinkedIn system today to grab a bunch of contacts for business purposes and took the opportunity to go looking for some old friends that I'd lost touch with. One emailed me back immediately that it was so nice to hear from me. I worked it out, I knew this lady for about six months, six and a half years ago.
I have described before in this journal how I was unemployed for a long time prior to my current state. Before that, I worked in the Netherlands, and my social life was an ex-pats' organisation (called SMILE, I can't remember what it stood for and it hardly matters). We would meet for dinner and beer around a table in a central Eindhoven pub every Friday and I was one of the more regular attendees.
So much so that when the then organiser retired and moved away, I got landed with being his successor. I decided bugger that, quite apart from the fact that my own job was precarious at the time. I organised a Yahoo group and a rota of regular greeters / table-holders, who formed a committee of people who would take charge of projects. When I finally had to cut and run I left it in good shape.
What I didn't realise and I only found out today was that the few people I stayed in contact with were reporting back to the SMILE table about how I was getting on, and that the club had been cheered that I'd sorted myself out.
People make an impression on me; I never consider that I might make a good impression on them. I'm guilty, as my (best) friend has said of himself, of travelling light. When I had a cat, where I left her was home. Most of the time my social life has been around a place, not necessarily people. I'd be a stranger in town so I'd go to a club like SMILE and I'd form my social life around going to that place and seeing who was there. I've never been good at forming or keeping relationships outside of a framework like that.
So I am totally gobsmacked to find that an entire club of people had been pleased to hear the report that I was doing all right, and that someone I expected to barely remember me was so pleased to hear from me after more than six years.
(She's also doing fine, by the way; private practice as a patent attorney in Munich and married last month, Yay her:)
I have described before in this journal how I was unemployed for a long time prior to my current state. Before that, I worked in the Netherlands, and my social life was an ex-pats' organisation (called SMILE, I can't remember what it stood for and it hardly matters). We would meet for dinner and beer around a table in a central Eindhoven pub every Friday and I was one of the more regular attendees.
So much so that when the then organiser retired and moved away, I got landed with being his successor. I decided bugger that, quite apart from the fact that my own job was precarious at the time. I organised a Yahoo group and a rota of regular greeters / table-holders, who formed a committee of people who would take charge of projects. When I finally had to cut and run I left it in good shape.
What I didn't realise and I only found out today was that the few people I stayed in contact with were reporting back to the SMILE table about how I was getting on, and that the club had been cheered that I'd sorted myself out.
People make an impression on me; I never consider that I might make a good impression on them. I'm guilty, as my (best) friend has said of himself, of travelling light. When I had a cat, where I left her was home. Most of the time my social life has been around a place, not necessarily people. I'd be a stranger in town so I'd go to a club like SMILE and I'd form my social life around going to that place and seeing who was there. I've never been good at forming or keeping relationships outside of a framework like that.
So I am totally gobsmacked to find that an entire club of people had been pleased to hear the report that I was doing all right, and that someone I expected to barely remember me was so pleased to hear from me after more than six years.
(She's also doing fine, by the way; private practice as a patent attorney in Munich and married last month, Yay her:)