I’ve written my Memory and Meaning proposal for my photography “Art Studio” class. My subject as I’ve said is sea glass, first choice. Back up plan is birds. This is one of my first sea glass pictures, taken outside in the morning light. I wrote about my sea glass project HERE.
We’ve had more than our usual social outings lately. It’s because our good friends and neighbors have been out of town — and then we were out of town. We wanted to connect and get together before we go our separate ways again. It’s busier than I enjoy, but there have been some moments that really touched me.
AI Overview:
Social life refers to an individual’s time spent interacting with other people and the quality of those relationships, often involving activities for pleasure or enjoyment with friends, family, and the broader community. A person’s social life can include both in-person and online interactions and is shaped by the bonds they form and the social opportunities available to them.
I went to a baby shower for a woman who was a swimmer with my kids on the Palm Springs swim team. She earned a swim scholarship at ASU, broke the 200 free record, and now teaches elementary school in the Phoenix area. Her husband does electrical work for us and we’ve had them over for dinner.
I was so excited to see her, her sister and her mom. The mother-to-be is four years older than my oldest, but they all hung out together at the pool. Her sister is a year older than her, but I have the best memories of being at swim meets, so impressed with these sisters. They would engage the youngers under pop up tents playing cards, games and being silly at swim meets.
When I told my kids I was going to her baby shower, they both said, “We love them!” That’s saying something more than 15 years later from being swim teammates.
Back in the day, this mom took me under her wing and taught me all about being a swim mom. She showed me the ropes of volunteering at swim meets and what jobs were the best ones to sign up for. We’d host Friday through Sunday swim meets in Palm Springs with close to 750 swimmers. Maybe even bigger. That meant there would also be a mom, dad — even grandma and grandpa — for each swimmer. We had a snack bar that would serve breakfast and lunch for all those people.
We had a separate area of food for the coaches, around 50 of them. Our team had a reputation for the best food ever in Southern California for swim coaches. There were two reasons for this. (REASON ONE) Chef Francois from the Ritz Carlton was a swim dad. His daughter was one of our daughter’s swim friends. He prepared the coaches’ meals (REASON TWO) which was prime rib, turkey dinner and yes, LOBSTER. Another swim dad free dove for lobster off the Southern California coast and took his kids and their friends to assist in the catch.
All those memories came rushing back when I walked into the baby shower and got hugs from the sisters and the mom. How wonderful to reminisce, be around younger people that I truly love and the mom who I spent so much time with. We sat and talked during swim practices and worked together at meets. I didn’t realize how much I value these friendships from my swim mom days.
Below: Finches at the birdbath.
What do you consider a busy social life?
Do you like being quiet staying at home, or being out and about busy?
What friends from your past do you still see?
JoyRoses13 from Nuggets of Gold wrote a fun story on her blog using my photos of Red plus pictures from another photographer. You can read it HERE.
