Even though I have had my Movie Club group for over 3 years now, I’ve never met any of the women from the group in person. A few of us in the group have gotten close over the last few years and have a text group together, but I’ve never seen them outside of a screen. Most of the women from that text group got together about a year ago when they all met up, but because they are all on the east coast and it was really difficult for me to travel there and find an affordable flight, I had to miss out. It was tough being left out of that mini-vacation, but I knew that it wouldn’t have been the right choice to miss work and spend a huge amount of money on just a weekend trip. We’ve talked about having another group trip, but as things have been opening up more and everyone has gotten busier, it’s harder to organize.
I’ve had some conversations with some of the group one on one about them coming out to LA. Again, it’s not easy to plan trips when everyone is so busy. But one person in the group might need to be out here for work, so that could be a possibility for meeting up. And another member of the group has a brother who lives only a few blocks away from me, so we had said the next time she was here we should meet up. And finally, she was going to be in LA for a very quick time so we were able to make some plans.
We had to work around some family things she already had scheduled and the limited time she was going to be here, but we made it work to meet up for an hour or so when I was done with work last week. Since she was staying with her brother and was only a few blocks from me, we met up by the Culver Steps since that was easy for both of us to get to. She had dinner plans after we met, so we met up for some ice cream as a pre-dinner treat. And it happened to be a place I had a gift card for from work, so it was a free treat for both of us!
In a weird way, it reminded me of meeting someone from a dating app. It was in a location where I tend to do a lot of dates and I was meeting someone who I had only known virtually. But since we’ve been texting and talking for years (compared to dating apps where it’s usually only a few days), there was no weirdness when we finally met in real life. It felt like we’ve known each other forever and not that we only knew each other for the past 3 years.
It was so awesome to be face-to-face and hang out. It was a quick hangout and we were talking about the same things that we talk about via text, but it was so nice to have the hangout feel so normal. It’s crazy to think how the women in our text group have become some of my closest friends and I really have never met them. But I think a lot of us learned through the pandemic how friendships can be formed in unique ways. And making friends as an adult is hard enough, so I’m always open to however I can make new friends.
We weren’t able to sit and chat too long before we both had to get to what we had to do that evening, but even having an hour of face-to-face time with a friend helps me feel much more involved in the world. I’ve said so many times how I’ve become more isolated and how I want to work on being out and about more. This quick hangout accomplished that plus it allowed me to finally meet a friend that I’ve known for years but have never seen.
Hopefully, some more of the women in the text group will be able to make it out to LA in the near future so I can get to know more of them in real life. But even if that doesn’t happen soon, I’m so grateful that I at least have had some face time with one person from the group now.
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