Car Free in Raleigh

ser·en·dip·i·ty
2. good fortune; luck

This morning I realized (too late) that my monthly La Leche League meeting was at 10:30 am. On the other side of town.

I checked gotriangle.org but it was clear that I needed to leave by 8:30 to arrive in time for the meeting, and unfortunately, it was 9:30 and I wasn’t even dressed yet. I moped around for a bit, not wanting to call either of my two friends who live nearby and bum a ride. (One decision we made early on was not to be dependent on friends with cars. While we’re happy to be invited along shopping or to other places, we have made the decision not to ask for rides.)

Well, wouldn’t you know that a few seconds later, my phone rang.

“Hey. It’s Kara. Want to ride with us to LLL this morning? I have to pick up some things at Mandy’s house and I already have a second carseat in the van I’m driving today.”

As you may imagine, I just about fell out of my chair, and quickly accepted the offer. It ended up being beneficial for both of us; Kara, being quite pregnant, was not happy to lug two boxes of LLL library books into the church hall. So, I helped her load and unload and load her car, and she gave us a lift there and back.

Then, after the meeting, she and another leader, Jessica, were debating where to eat lunch. I realized that we had plenty of food in the fridge to fix Gumbo Stew, so I offered to host at my house. It turned out to be a really nice time, much less expensive and much less of a hassle than eating in a restaurant with a handful of toddlers. We realized that we should do things this way more often. Community building is easier when you carpool and share meals in each other’s homes, it seems.