take a number.

tonight at the dog park i met a nice girl named karen. i've seen her at the dog park before. her wire-haired puppy is friends with my smooth-coated pooch. they spend hours wrestling. so i finally got to chatting with her. turns out she's originally from cerritos, is 2nd generation japanese, moved to this area with her husband at the time 2 years ago and became an Art teacher at a local high school. they divorced but she stayed, securing tenure as a teacher. we were talking about the heterogeneity we missed in LA and OC. she cited a bunch of good japanese restaurants i had never heard of back home. we reminisced. then she asked for my number and i got hers. she seemed like the type of girl whom i could be friends with. if i stick around.

as i've gotten older, it's been so difficult to add people to my friend collection. i'm generally a friendly gal. basically, i'll talk to anyone, but to put forth the effort to actually become bonafide friends with someone is a thing of the past. i don't think i've gotten choosier. in fact, i think the older i've gotten, the more willing and interested i've become in becoming acquainted with people who have little in common with me. i might have gotten lazier. but that isn't really the case because more often than not, i initiate social interaction. i think i'm alot less social though. it just seems to cost more and more energy to have to feign interest in a conversation when i'd rather just be minding my own business. i've moved around quite a bit. but that's not it either because plenty of people make friends wherever they go.

so what is it? i'm not quite sure. but people no longer need to take a number to get my number.