Not Over-Eager, Yet Interested

Keith and I have been meeting a lot of new people since Eleanor was born. It's hard sometimes to strike the right balance between not seeming desperate and over eager to strike up a friendship, but yet interested enough to pursue becoming more than just acquaintances.

Once, in December, I apparently failed to strike the right balance. I had met another new mom at the breastfeeding support group. She seemed really nice and we had a lot in common .... we had even emailed back and forth a few times about breastfeeding-related stuff. But then I casually mentioned in an email (it was very "breezy," if you remember the Friends episode) that we should get together sometime outside of the group. I never heard from her again.

But things were looking a bit more hopeful for my mom and baby yoga group. I really like the instructor, and one other mom has joined the group who's baby girl was born just 2 days before Eleanor. A few weeks ago, the instructor suggested that we all meet at the zoo sometime, since we had been talking about going and having passes, etc.

Today was that day. Except, it didn't go according to plan at all. The instructor left me a voicemail a few days ago saying she couldn't make it after all. She didn't have the other mom's phone number handy, but she would give mine to the other mom, so Mom #2 could call me and we could discuss if we still wanted to go or what.

Well, I never heard from her and I had no way of contacting her. We were supposed to meet at the zoo at noon today. Finally, at 9 o'clock this morning, I called the instructor and told her I'd never heard anything so I didn't know what was going on. Or rather, I told her voicemail. At that point, I wrote the whole thing off. The instructor had cancelled, the other mom hadn't called me, and it was pouring down rain. Obviously, it wasn't meant to be.

At 11:40, the instructor calls me back. Apparently, she never got a hold of Mom #2 to say that she couldn't go. So all this time, Mom #2 thought everything was good, we were all meeting as planned. And apparently, the only way the instructor did finally talk to Mom #2 is because Mom #2 called the instructor to say she was running 5-10 minutes late.

So, it's 11:40. It takes me at least a half-hour to get to the zoo, if I were ready to walk out the door. Which I wasn't at all. But Mom #2 was already en route, the instructor wasn't going ... so I had to go, right?

I threw baby stuff into the diaper bag. Diapers, change of clothes, bottle, food, sunhat, sunblock ... anything I could possibly need or want. I put in my contacts so I could wear my sunglasses (since by this time it had turned into a gorgeous, sunny day) and forgot to bring my sunglasses. And off Eleanor and I went.

In the end, it turned out really well. Mom #2 was very nice, and very understanding. We chatted easily about babies and life and babies.

And she was the one who said we should do it again sometime, so hopefully that means I struck the right note between over-eager and interested.