They could’ve been my friends

I got an email last week from one of our local homeschool groups about upcoming activities. As I scanned the list to see where our scheduling conflicts were, and found that we were only free for one of them – Park Playday. I’ve declared this to be New Friends November. I’m looking for my people wherever they may be, and so I’m saying ‘Yes’ to all invitations for which I don’t have a scheduling conflict. That’s how we ended up heading to the park last week on day when I’d rather have stayed put.

I loaded all the kids into my giant SUV, making sure to bring toys, water bottles, and sidewalk chalk. (I’ve started to make a point of  bringing chalk to the park. It gives Ella something to do in the case that the park is not accessible. It’s a sure hit with all the kids. Note to self: always bring chalk to the park.)

As I walked up the sidewalk towards the five moms who were there (three deep in conversation, two by the swings), I heard a gasp.

“Oh my goodness, you’re Rebecca Frech!”

I turned to see one of the swing moms do a little hoppy happy dance.

“You are, aren’t you?” She continued. “We love your book. It’s like our homeschooling sanity check. I didn’t know that you were part of this group.” She turned to her friend and called out, “Elise*, do you know who this is? It’s Rebecca Frech!”

Let me stop this to say that I don’t get recognized very often. I’m not that big of a deal in the real world, but among certain groups of homeschoolers…I have a following, so it happens occasionally.

This seemed hopeful and promising to me. They already knew who I was and liked what they knew, so I smiled in what I hoped was a non-creepy way and said, “Hi.” (Because I’m eloquent like that.)

They twittered and giggled in their fan-girl way as I tried to start a conversation with them. Then one of them ran to her car to get the copy of my book she had in her bag. Would I autograph it, please?

I was happy to do so because it’s one of my favorite things to do…evah!

They then grabbed the book and walked excitedly across the playground,  sat on a bench totally engrossed in their conversation, and discussed how exciting it was to have met me. They  squealed over how cool it was to have a signed book…

…and I could hear their excitement from the place by the swings where they left me.

I’m super glad that they had their fan-girl moment, and that they “couldn’t stop smiling” because they were so thrilled…but the thing is…it could have been so much better. They could have been my friends.

*Not her real name