feeling adrift, and dinner with four guys named Jim.

So, last night I ate dinner with four guys named Jim.    Apparently, there's a 5th guy named Jim, but he no-showed....

When I was introduced around, I flashbacked to many dorm cafeteria dinners with 4-5 girls named Kim.  Only the Jims are WAY older, and not as pretty and have had way more life experiences than the 5 kims had at the time.

Come to think of it, I’ve just described myself…

Pork chops, I think.  (Not really versed on pork, heard tell of a large piece of pork, cut into 5/8 inch thick pieces..)  Baked beans, Miller Lite, some desert thingy that’s actually not bad for you, we were told, because it’s made entirely of sugar free / fat free alternatives to…real ingredients.

Did not need to know that last part...

And I had a nice time, all things considered, sitting at the picnic table; eating pork chops off a Styrofoam plate; making polite conversations with the aforementioned Jims and others who all get together once a week to share food and stories.   One of the folks there knows a lot about my new house and the history of the neighbors, and the name of the lady for whom the home was likely built, over a hundred years ago...   That was worth the price of admission, right there.... 

I hope to do so again, at least 1-2 more times this summer.    

In a way I would not have predicted, it actually helped me to feel like I belong… someplace.    A little less like I’m not 100%... anywhere at the moment.     

I’ve been floating on a bubble of temporary… everything for way too long,  so much so that the smallest thing, food with strangers as an example, feels significant.

 Last week it was a new library card, granted me outside of proof-of-residency guidelines, because… I know a guy.

Hope to be in my new home, with the things that make a house a home, like… my wife and daughter and my stuff, in less than 30 days.   Then, perhaps, I’ll feel like I actually belong someplace, one place,  all the way.  That will be a very good feeling.

Hey, if you’re gonna dream, dream big.