Seeing People

This has been the great week I was hoping it would be. 

After feeling so bored when coming home from vacation, I knew I had to take some time to spend with other people and have new conversations. 

As it turned out, they naturally came our way.

Monday: Bekah and Matt both stopped by on their runs for a quick hello. Yay for sisters! I ended up doing a quick change into my exercise clothes and walking back with Bekah to her in-laws home. We sat on her lawn and the kids came out to say hi too. She is always the breath of fresh air I need in my life!

For dinner, Diane, Luke and Max came over. We never, ever get to spend enough time together -- and rarely with Max too! And actually, Luke is often running off with Chris. So this was so nice to get to be with all of them (missed Sam!). Luke came home from his mission the week before so it was good to get to talk to him in person.

Tuesday: Bekah, Matt and family came over to swim and BBQ. Their kids are the cutest! They swam while we talked. They mobbed Marty and Lizzie (who came up for the evening so everyone could meet Lizzie). Then we had a pretty great game of TV tag. Bekah and I also did a few cartwheels and even worked on the splits with her girls. (I actually still have great form! But my back definitely noticed that I have not moved those muscles in that way in a million years.)

Wednesday: Young Women's bleaching t-shirts activity. We had a great turnout and the process was easy and fun. I love these cute girls and I HATE not being able to give them hugs! I also love chatting with Mary, my partner in the class and her cute girls.

After the activity we had a presidency meeting that I've actually really been looking forward to since I've been craving human interaction this week. We had a marathon meeting -- per our usual -- but it was fun to talk and plan with everyone again.

Thursday (Today): Eric Rigby's 50th birthday party across the street. Dan and I were committed to wearing our masks and just saying hello and leaving. We had to really give each other moral support on the way over and reminded ourselves "we're doing this for Courtney." It worked out perfect! We waved at friends from a distance, said hi to Steph and Eric, chatted for a minute with just a couple of people and took our burger and shakes to go.

Then as we were coming home, our good friends, The Mabey's, who we used to talk so much back in the elementary school days but haven't seen in a long time rode by on electric bikes. We had a good socially distanced visit. Wendy is so kind and had such sweet things to say about Chris and me. It felt good.

I've realized that as much as I love being by myself, I do need people too. I need different conversations and talking about other people's lives and discussing topics that naturally come up. So it was good to have that this week. Coronavirus has created difficulty in finding that balance.