Ok, so I don’t have any news to report on the progress of my New Year’s Resolution (unfortunately, one of my resolutions has never been about procrastination!). BUT, I have started to cultivate new friendships, online and offline, and I’m pleasantly pleased with the potential for each of them. Even though I haven’t pressed into my current social media friends or connections, at the end of the day, the point of this is to come away with more quality friends after all, isn’t it?

Online, I’ve interacted with my local community in a dedicated Facebook group, asking questions and answering questions, especially when it fell into my expertise of travel, and even more into my niche of all-inclusive travel in Mexico and the Caribbean. I didn’t live there for nothin’!

Also, as the days tick closer to my Asian Extravaganza (arriving in Singapore just in time for the Chinese New Year!), I have been looking for some people to host me on Couchsurfing, and it is so heartwarming to be welcomed into a stranger’s house, for no reason other than an act of kindness and good will. Well, actually, the dark side is that there are some creepers whom I’ve connected with, and our conversation part deux begins with “so why don’t you have anymore pics on your profile?” -.-  I’m not really interested in those kinds of meet ups.

OH! And also, a friend of a friend of my sister is offering to host me in Singy for my few days in town whilst I acclimate… offering me my own separate guest room and bathroom… an iMac (!!!)… and even a driver to pick me up at the airport in the middle of the night, after crossing half the world and traveling forward in time one, no, two days! She also seems like a lovely lady who will adventure around the island with me and be my lunch date, at least. So, *I* feel like THIS:

Now, offline is where things are a bit more interesting.

And again I have to credit the Couchsurfing community, since I’ll be meeting a bunch of them starting in just about six weeks.

The other day, I went to the library to relax and read through some of my SE Asia guidebooks–sometimes I like the patine of turning pages. After about an hour, someone tapped me on the shoulder from a neighboring table and asked me if I was, indeed going to Thailand? I smiled and said yes, whereby she told me that I am going to LOVE it! I mentioned I had been there for a couple of days, and we swapped some travel stories – and I’m realizing more and more that the secret keyword that not many people know of IS, in fact, “travel” (seriously, try using it as an icebreaker and see how far it goes). She was one half of a lovely older, retired couple that has visited about 40 countries (and counting), including some more extended tours into Asia, which is really a region that I am more passionate about, more on that in other postings. We exchanged e-mails and I told her that I hope to keep in touch.

Still, I met another person I’m interested in getting to know this week, while setting up an international, fee-free ATM card (yes, such a miracle exists, check it out at Charles Schwab). Something I really should have done YEARS ago to be totally honest. We met coincidentally, and I found out she is fairly new to the area and looking to make friends, and has quite an interesting history of travel and emigration herself. I love it and am looking forward to befriending a fellow nomad in this world, where sincerity and integrity are the stuff that long-lasting, long-distance friendships are made of.

And last, but certainly not least, I am elated that “Tales of a Female Nomad” author Rita Golden Gelman wrote back to me, in just under 24 hours, to my fan letter thanking her for publishing such a beautiful memoir. I would wager that if you enjoyed reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, this one would easily please you just as much. (Let me make a quick book review aside here, I find that Tales of a Female Nomad is more episodic, in that she catalogues her visits and experiences across several different countries, achieving something new in each country. While Eat, Pray, Love, does this as well, I think of that particular memoir as more of a three act play in how it is sewn together. Both were phenomenal and worth a read, in my opinion).

The point being – no, I haven’t advanced on what I’ve promised so far regarding reaching out to Facebook and LinkedIn people (yet), but yes, I have been cultivating more friendships as I move along.