So there's this thing, the Seattle-Freeze, which I am not really sure is a thing at all but which everyone talks about. The idea is that for newcomers to the city it's hard to make friends in Seattle. Now I hate to break it to you, but it's hard to make friends in <em>any</em> city after college so I am not really sure what makes Seattle different in this respect. Like somehow, it's really, really hard to make friends here? Unclear.

But it's enough of a thing (and Seattle is enough of a tech place), that there's a <a title="The Seattle Freeze" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Freeze" target="_blank">wikipedia entry</a> for the Seattle Freeze--you know because the Seattle Freeze clearly needs its own wikipedia page. Seattle local public radio, <a title="KPLU and the Seattle Freeze" href="http://www.kpluwonders.org/content/why-seattle-freeze-so-hard-melt" target="_blank">KPLU also has a piece on the Freeze</a> but it's more light hearted and inquisitive than anything else.  

What's a (friend-less) girl like me to do? Well, I am working on making friends in Seattle. Now to be clear, I'm not exactly friend-less.

One of the reasons I ended up here is because my sister C. calls Seattle home. So step one to making friends in Seattle has been this: steal my sister's. I've wormed my way into book club, I've been invited to celebrate birthday parties and we've consumed lots of good, bad and questionable alcohol together. So far, so good. I'm well on my way to stealing all of her friends. Lucky for me, she has good taste in friends.

I also have a few really good friends from high school who live in the area. We've been reconnecting and having a lot of fun doing it but their lives are different than mine. They are married and have children. Really cute, smart and funny kids but kids nonetheless. It means making plans further out and negotiating more complicated schedules. I am glad to do it and I am happy to see that our friendships are strong enough and flexiable enough to adjust to these changes. But,<em> gasp</em>, we aren't as available as we were at 16 to just hang out.

So I've been busy putting myself out there.

That's the thing about making friends you have to put yourself out there. You can't wait for others to invite you along. You have to make plans. You have to initiate hangouts. You have to be proactive. You have to claw your way in but you also have to be willing to go out.

Last week, I attended the Secret Garden monthly book club meeting.