Yesterday, I hopped into the elevator, intending to return the grocery cart to the lobby. I had brought up three boxes that had been delivered to us. A meal kit box, Ishu’s diapers, and Ishu’s pull-ups! Big boy!

When I got into the elevator, someone was already in there so I assumed they were headed down to the lobby and didn’t think to look at the buttons to see which one was lit up. But the doors opened to the 2nd floor. He got off, someone else got on, and by the time I tried to swipe my fob to go DOWN, we were already headed up.

The girl apologized to me.

I responded, “Oh no, it’s not your fault. I wasn’t paying attention.”

We were laughing about the elevators being so quick and I told her about how we weren’t city people and jokingly told her about how when we first moved here, we felt stressed cause the elevator doors seemed like city elevators! So fast, so fast, so fast!

She started telling me a story but because the elevators were so fast so fast, we had reached her floor. So she quickly wrapped it up and said, “Have a good day!” as she stepped off and walked toward her apartment.

The doors shut and I immediately hit the “Lobby” button, not wanting to make that mistake again.

As the elevator headed down, I thought about how nice it would be if we had some sort of “missed connections” feature on our apartment portal.

I’ve had so many brief encounters with people I wish I could know more. The couple from Knoxville, the lady who takes her dog to doggy daycare, the guy with the UCLA sweatshirt.

It makes me miss social interaction so much. So much so that I logged onto our apartment portal/dashboard thing and put up a posting about how Ishu and I were looking for some friends.

A few days went by and nobody responded.

People mostly use that to sell their furniture, not try to find friendships. So, I don’t know what I was expecting. But when that didn’t pan out, I started actively pursuing friends in other ways.

I recently signed up for Peanut – recommended to me by another mama. And I have been connecting with other moms on that app. In fact, Ishu and I met up with a mama son duo at the Navy Pier and we’re planning to go to the museum with them this weekend.

A few other moms and I have made some tentative plans. And, just yesterday, I saw that so many Cup of Jo readers have all filled out a spreadsheet with their cities/states/countries and some are even planning meet-ups.

I found another potential friend on that spreadsheet that lives relatively close to us. And she’s got a toddler too! We’ve been texting a bit and we’re planning to meet up for lunch in a week or so.

Making friends as an adult is hard.

Making friends as an adult who works from home – in a new city! – feels even harder.

There isn’t some sort of natural, organic way to connect with other people aside from the playground. And playgrounds are generally empty these days.

So it’s taking some active effort on my part. But there are ways. There are a number of ways. And it seems like it’s working to some extent.

I think so many of us all feeling some longing for connection. In the midst of a pandemic.

I’m sure I’m not the only one wanting a “missed connection” feature in our life. There’s a reason these kinds of apps exist and that Cup of Jo spreadsheet is overflowing with names from every single state and multiple countries.

There’s a spark that goes off inside my body when I feel some sort of connection with someone. And it’s about time to start paying attention to it and finding more ways to ignite it.

All that being said, I’m logging off for the weekend. And going to attempt to do some in-person (albeit COVID-safe) connecting.

Hope you all have a good weekend connecting with others as well! However that looks for you! <3