The Small Town Social scene DISaster. By Nathaniel

I recently arrived in Florida for my mini vacation and escape from the bustle of the fast paced city to visit my family and the little ones.(we all need a break sometime) on arriving back to my roots it seems customary to connect with the old friends or at least catch up on the stories of "hows so and so doing?" and other common questions like: who moved? who's dating who? who's married now? what new stores or restaraunts are happening and whats the general social scene like.

In my travel to my old town I always seem to fall short of the social scene. none of my former associates live close or are available and the ones that are seem to be completely out of touch of thier surroundings(or at least when it comes to a good party).
A lot of the time I show up at some spot that seems to be out of the social agenda since the begining of time and I usually can't multi task well enough to bounce back into the partying or hanging out mood. After many a time of  'packing up ship' and sailing back to my folks home I finally found the solution to my quick visit problem.


1) I always pop up unannounced and telling friends the day I touch down at the airport - while getting my bags and walking to my awaiting driver.(my parents or brother) sounded soooo celeb-like "my awaiting driver"

pop-ups are not good.(like the ones on this computer indicating a slow virus-like invasion of this laptop)
And I must remember that even the stars have press releases and public appearances are usually announced.
alert people ahead of time of when your showing up.

2) I never seem to keep up with  my associates well enough to keep abreast with whats happening ( I usually think, "what could be possibly happening in that tiny town?" but obviously it is something when your visiting.
keep in general contact with a few of the town regulars that know whats going on and where..

3) I didnt think of doing a lil research before I traveled (my last thoughts were very simple, Im off from work visit family, watch movies, play with my lil ones and sleep, sleep, sleep and maybe read a book..

At the time when I was getting ready to visit the small town I should have:
Checked - out the local radio station they usually list upcomming events
connected with a social networking site like Facebook.

In the end           I realized that even though visiting my family in Florida is the main priority I still wanted in on the social scene and to do so required me to alert a few close friends of my upcomming trip, keep regular contacts with a socialite and doing basic research for myself.

I hope you learned or was entertained by something from this post... If you have other ideas that you think is helpful or you have a story of your own small town social scene experience feel free to post it or message me.