A month ago I moved to a town where I don’t know a single soul and it’s isolating, lonely, and scary as hell. I’m closer to my daughter and granddaughter, however, and I know I’m fortunate to have that option, but there’s something humbling about uprooting yourself from a mecca of familiarity to a city in which you can barely leave your apartment without GPS.
If I slipped and hit my head and died in my bathtub, no one would know, at least not for a day at most. I think. Thankfully it’s winter and I suddenly have to pay for my own heat, so decomposition should be nice and slow.
I like being single but I miss the single life I had in my hometown. There I knew how to combat loneliness, where to go, what to do if I felt isolated, and fear didn’t enter into the equation at all.
In my new city I’m at loose ends.
So I’ve been trying to do things that force me to get up and out of my comfort zone like joining the local YMCA so I can swim in the mornings (I’m the youngest one there at 6 am so there’s that), bringing my laptop to a local bakery and sitting down with a matcha latte and my everything multigrain bagel (I know, I’m doing too much with this bagel), and writing while I people watch.
Today I decided to explore one of the beautiful waterfalls this city is known for and I wasn’t disappointed. And bonus(!), I met a prospective friend during my winter hike. (I know beggars can’t be choosers but I need to know if she thinks Die Hard is a Christmas movie…).
It seemed a little early to ask my maybe new friend to take a selfie with me so here’s the waterfall, by itself.
We started talking while standing at the waterfall and because I can’t have nice things, I immediately began to cry. I was just so overwhelmed by my loneliness and her and her boyfriend’s kindness. And then I was mortified.
She stopped talking, looked at me, and invited me out to dinner.
Do you think it’s too early to text her?
Wish me luck,
Zoey