Tuesday, March 1, 2011

We Have Neighbors

Correction: We have had neighbors for the past three years...but um, I just officially met them last night. *guilty gulp*. I know! I am terrible. But listen, they are shy too okay? It isn't just me. When we happen to be going in or out of our houses at the same time we have always waved and said 'hello' or a time or two we've pumped things up with a 'how's it going?'. 9 months ago when they brought home their little boy, I made a plate of chocolate chip cookies and left it with a note on their door step saying congratulations. Then they left the empty plate and a thank you note in our mailbox. What can I say, we're obviously all very extroverted people.
On Saturday I was just leaving the house as they were walking back up the street from the park with their little one and I said 'hi! how are you guys doing?'. They said 'good, how are you?'. I responded 'good thanks'. I know we're so verbose, I should really learn how to cut down on how much I blab to strangers.
Well apparently they don't mind that I talk way too much because last night the husband, Dustin (solidifying name in memory by writing it in blog), came to the door with a "What to Expect When You're Expecting" Book and said his wife wanted to give it to me. I almost grabbed it before he was like 'do you already have it?'. Damn! I can't lie, I do have it. I pretended to look at it a little closer and then said 'oh yeah I do have that one already, but that was so nice of you guys to offer it to us'. Then he said 'Do you know what you are having?', 'yes it is a boy!', 'it's a boy? We have a ton of baby clothes my wife wants to get rid of, would you like those?'. 'Really? That would be so great!'. Then there was a moment of awkward pause as I tried to figure out what would come next 'um do you want us to come by this weekend or something and go through them or something' (i'm super good with words and shit....don't be jealous). 'Actually she has them all in the living room if you want to come grab them'. 'oh! okay let me grab my coat'. So I proceeded to follow him over to his house and met his wife Lindsey (or it could be Lindsay with an "a" she didn't spell it out for me so I can't be sure). She was in her red satin pajamas with tiny white hearts on them, so I immediately felt a tad awkward being in her house....it was past 9:30. But she handed me a trashbag full of clothes with promises that there would be lots more to follow. We chatted for a few minutes and then I thanked her profusely and Dustin insisted on carrying the bag back to the house for me. I invited him in to meet Andy and to be assaulted and sneezed upon by our dogs (nothing but the royal treatment for our guests). He spotted one of Andy's guns and then the conversation was on like Donkey Kong. We discovered that Dustin does his own reloading (bullets) and they said lots of numbers that represent bullet sizes, but my brain shut off during that part. I asked if they would like to come over for a BBQ sometime and he asked if we like Elk because he shot one last year. The boys got on the subject of high-capacity magazines and shooting ranges. It was like an NRA convention in our front room.
After he left Andy and I decided we would thoroughly clean our house up and then invite them over for dinner. There is nothing that makes you feel more like a dirt bag than going over to someone's house who has a 9 month old and realizing it is cleaner than yours.....plus we may have been watching Hoarders last night which always gives me the 'I need to clean everything' hives. I think watching that show seriously has some sort of lasting affect on me. I internalize the images from those people's houses and it's as if I see piles of moldy paper and mice poop all over our house. But at the same time, it keeps me clean, so I kind of have a sick love for the show.
Anyway, I couldn't help but feel this extreme high after Dustin left. I was excited to have the prospect of new friends. Not only would we have more people to hang out with, but they have a baby too. Plus there is a convenience factor, they live right next door, so if they like to drink at all, we can get together and then stumble back to our respective houses. Score.
So it may have taken 3 years, but we have finally met the neighbors.

5 comments:

  1. You may have just inspired me to do the same. When we first moved in our poor neighbors showed up with a bottle of wine one night, but we were so freaking tired and filthy from moving that we had to decline. If I remember correctly it definitly wasn't their first glass...we had too much catching up to do! Plus, I was ovulating if I remember correctly. :) I may just have to show up at their house this weekend and return the favor.

    Look at you all making friends. Good girl.

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  2. Its never too late! Our neighbors sent over chocolate cake to us at Christmastime to welcome us to the neighborhood. We moved in April. But I wasn't pregnant in April so December was a much better fit for cake-giving. We also recently started hanging out with the couple down the street which resulted in a very robust increase in my maternity wear. BONUS!

    Morale of the story: never too late to benefit from neighbors.

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  3. This post makes me sad - we know the neighbors that surround us, and got to be really close with one of them over the past 6 months, but he and his wife are having problems and he moved out just this past weekend. All the plans together we had for when the weather warms up are out the window. Enjoy spending time with your neighbors! It's great to get to know them!

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  4. How fun to finally meet them! Sounds like they're nice people.

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  5. Oh man! I've been in my place for 2 years now, and have yet to introduce myself to any of my neighbors... Yeah, I'm super verbose in real life too! ;)

    I love that they did that though! Seriously... SO sweet!

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