Keeping an open schedule

One of my goals this year is to spend more time with friends. The flip side to that, though, is not over-schedule our lives so we do have time for surprise visits.

I am eternally grateful whenever I go to Ohio, my friend Heidi finds a way to squeeze me into her busy schedule. Though we live far away, and our visits are not nearly as often as I would like, when they happen they are like magic. The same is true of seeing Don's cousins in Massachusetts. We always end up leaving later than we should as we try to squeeze in more laughs, smiles, and time together.

I've been working on my goal of having lunch with at least one friend each week. So far in 2015, I have had lunch with Debbi at Fedora's, Karen at Fedora's, met new cousins, rang in the New Year with friends from Kappa at George and Martha's new house, had lunch with RuthAnn in prison, hung out with Canadian Chris on his rare weekend stay in NJ, and have plans to see more friends in the near future.

The real excitement for me, though, came when I heard Holly was going to be in town for a funeral. It was bittersweet. Holly moved to Alabama (which us New Jersayans know is practically another planet) 8 1/2 years ago. She has not been back since, and faithful blog readers can surmise I have not been to Alabama, either. It was fun. She looks fabulous. We were all able to laugh and smile and visit for many hours. By 10 PM, though, our coach was starting to turn into a pumpkin, and we had to pick up Ashley from Grammy and Papa John's house, and get home. We had hardly taken a breath in the 8 hours we were visiting.

Keeping an open schedule doesn't mean never making any plans. It is no fun wallowing in self-pity because no one invites us to do fun things. On the contrary, it means making plans with friend and being flexible enough to change them when the unexpected pops up (which sometimes means a snow storm, and having to reschedule). It also helps us to appreciate those days when we don't have plans and we just want to sit at home, snuggle with our pets, and read books.

It also means when you bump into someone at Target or the grocery store, you take the time to chat and not always be in a race to get to the next place. Especially if that person is a faithful reader of the Pillsbury Press (yes, you Lynda) and will be reading this.

We'd love to spend more time with you, too. Drop us an email or FB message, or just add a comment to this blog post. Let's make it happen in 2015!