jackson and i had our first official playdate this morning. it was delightful, to say the very least. my new friend and her husband have two little girls, ages 4 and (almost) 3. we played, we coffeed, we talked… i’m honestly not sure who enjoyed the visit more, jackson or me.

as time went on and my new friend and i got more comfortable getting to know one another, the typical “mom subjects” of discipline, schedules/routines, siblings took a turn to deeper, dare i say, political viewpoints. and it was at this point in our playdate when i knew i had found a mom-friend here in annapolis who i could really get along with.

my new friend had poked around at my blog before our play-date today, and so that was our jumping off point for conversation…

“i imagine it would make me feel vulnerable to put myself out there like that… you have no editor to run things by… it’s just out there upon clicking ‘publish,’” she said.
“yeah, but that’s kinda why i like it. instant gratification. what you see is what you get. no apologies.”

and that “style” is very me… and so we started to delve into that a little bit. both my new friend and i are married to dudes in the military. and while it is a nice resource to have an instant community of sorts, i have found that it’s not always the most accepting.

“so i saw on your blog that you consider yourself a liberal,” my new friend said.
(((smiling))) “yup. sure do,” i responded.

“i’m interested to know… how do you reconcile that with what your husband does? i guess what i mean is, in your experience, do you find yourself standing alone on issues?” she very honestly asked.

keep in mind, i did not know her stance on anything, but was interested and loved the manner in which she asked these very candid questions. so we continued to talk. i shared with her about how i grew up in a very conservative home, but with age and life experience have come to identify myself as a liberal individual. i told her that while paul’s current employer doesn’t lend itself to many of us, we’re out there… stirring the pot.

she smiled at me and then confessed how she has felt her own stirrings from within, a sort of new found independence in some of her views. we then proudly discussed how we voted this past election, and she shared with me the name of another obama-supporting neighbor.

i’ve always known that it’s more or less understood that military wives are conservative. the military itself is conservative. and so therefore it would make sense to have the stereotype that those of us who support those in the armed services (via marriage) would fall in line accordingly.

but i don’t. never have… and not planning to either. and i’m really content in knowing that. some of my greatest conversations are with conservative folk (you know who you are) and i love that. but i also loved finding a pal who shared some similar thoughts to mine this morning.

so thank you, new friend (if you’re reading this). thank you for the hospitality and intellectually stimulating conversation at 8:30 am. and thanks for the french press coffee. it was splendid.