Hi Friends!
Racing the clock, as always, as I try to capture two very special snippets of today so that I don’t lose them along the way. (And admittedly, I am finishing and posting this a few days later). These two little tidbits are examples of why we made this move, and they are also two things that I hope (and trust) will happen many more times over the days ahead… so today I just wanted to mark them as “the firsts”.
Tidbit 1 – meeting a new friend for lunch.
While we treasure, cherish and have no intention of losing or replacing any of our amazing friends from our old life (and we so appreciate all of those who are making the effort to keep in touch and visit) – this new adventure includes the opportunity for both the Maven and the Magpie to make new friends, in a new community, based on different factors – new jobs, a new neighborhood, more time, a closer connection between who we are and what we love and what we do. It’s just a whole new context within which to make new friends and build new friendships – with the great luxury of more time, a smaller town and a closer connection through more shared experiences (and a heavy dose of horses!). My expectation (we’ll see if true) is that it be less likelye for one of us to have a friend that is not also a friend of the other and/or we’ll have more couple-friends.. because we’re spending so much more time together. Anyhoo, without wanting to jinx what seemed like the start of a fun, joyful and wonderful new friendship (officially my 2nd new friend in Saratoga, outside of work), I just want to say what a treat it was to do the following:
- I met this woman at one of our TRF events a couple weeks ago, we had a lovely chat, learned that she was just moving to Saratoga after spending lots of time here, exchanged numbers….
- I then texted photos of this woman and her family, and suggested we meet for lunch one day
- She enthusiastically accepted, we set a date for today at 12:30 at Scallions
- And, today, we sat at 12:30 and finished after 2pm! Much fun!!! (And Ellen, I tried very hard not to tell her my entire life story… but I came pretty close)
- We covered a lot of ground, and felt like there was much more to explore, and she specifically said how happy she was to now live in a place where someone would reach out and ask her to lunch – and I feel the same way!
- Yay!
Tidbit #2 – my job is to ask for money for the horses, and today I asked for money!
Lest you grow concerned, this is not the first time that I’ve discussed the ask and addressed the numbers I’m looking for (I had two very good prospect meetings after my Chenery brunch), and this week I started putting “renewal” asks in letters to those on my LYBNT list (just learned that acronym.. love it and it’s cousin SYBNT). However the special thing today was that this one happened by phone with next to no “chit chat”.
In sum, here’s this first – which I trust will be like my walks around the State Park, one of these things I need to count or put a dollar in the jar for every time…
- I made a call to a past donor, she answered her phone (rare!)
- She didn’t dodge me when I told her who I was
- I tried to engage in convo (with mild success),
- She told me she didn’t have a lot of time, so I leaned in with
- “I just have 2 points to share: I’ll be coming to CA in January and I’d like to meet with you and, based on your generous support last year we hope we might count on your continued support at this level in 2018”. Boom.
- She said, “as long as you put something in the mail to me, I’ll probably be able to do that” – not the most smashing win, but a direct answer to a direct question.
- And yes, the letter with the ask went in the mail within minutes of the call.
- I’ll keep you posted!
And just like that, we move forward into the next chapter. If this were a book, I’d say this is Chapter 3. First was the move (March-April). Second was the setting up our new life (May-July). Not sure what to do with the Summer, still part of the “new-ness” I think as there were so many new people, routines, experiences with being here the whole summer. And now, Chapter 3 is this settling in, getting in a groove. While we are going to continue pursuing firsts – with so many places to explore in the region and all of the new seasonal experiences (apples! pumpkins! winterizing!), this is more the deep breath, get comfortable, and make this our home… less of an exploration and more of a destination.
We couldn’t be happier – and I so appreciate sharing the journey with you.
XXOO
M.
An assortment of fun photos since Labor Day – scenes of the “life after the racing meet is over”.
