On the weekend, I went out. I mean "properly" out. As in, a night on the town with female friends.Do you know how long it's been since I did that? I wasn't sure myself, so I thought about it. It would have to be about 7 years ... in my mid-thirties. I've got photos of myself from 2011 on outings with friends, and there's been nothing since then.
At that time, I was part of our very own WAGS (Wives And Girlfriends) group; all partners of players at the cricket club my husband played for at that time. They were fun times. We'd get together every so often, leaving the partners and children at home, to go out clubbing for the night or to the horse races for the afternoon. I enjoyed it, especially having never had any close friends in my life that I'd done that with before.
I never went clubbing at the age most people do it. When I was 19, 20, etc, I was way too shy (and too serious, if I'm honest) to loosen up and enjoy a drink and dance with a room full of people. I thought it was a waste of time and money. Also, drunk people scared me.
Anyway, after that burst in my thirties, it dropped away again. The WAGS group fell away as people got busy with their own families and grew apart. My husband doesn't even play with that same cricket club anymore. I figured my "going out with the girls" days were over.
Until I was invited to, of all things, a linen party. This was with women I used to work with at the aged care facility up until this year. I've missed them so much. I find the hardest thing with working Community is the lack of regular contact with colleagues. It really is a solo job, for the most part. There is no morning tea or lunch break with other staff, where you share how your shift is going so far and the only time we really get to see each other is at staff meetings every couple of months. If it weren't for Facebook, I probably would have lost touch with them altogether. Luckily, someone thought to invite me to this linen party - and also mentioned that a group might go out on the town afterwards. I thought, "Yeah, why not?" So I went along to the party (and had a fantastic time catching up with them all, what a lot of laughs!), had a couple of drinks, then joined about three of them on a trip to the pubs. The places we went to were fairly quiet - not a lot of people out and about for a Saturday night - and I was home just after midnight. But we had a fun time and enjoyed each other's company. The others now know that I'm happy to be part of social occasions with them and I hope we do more of it in future.
On a side note though, on going to places where those 19 and 20 year olds go, I'm really happy I didn't run into any of my son's friends the other night ... that may have been just slightly embarrassing for both of us!
