september 21 in twenty-eight

C and I ended up taking the neighbors up on their offer to come over for beers. They live directly across the street from us so we were able to walk back and forth to get refills (maybe that’s technically breaking the law, but whatevs). When we first showed up I was told the men and women were split up and “I hope that’s OK.” I wasn’t thrilled with that; I tend to have more in common with the men than the women, so I was seated on one end of this porch and C was way on the other end. Usually at these kinds of things we are able to at least sit near each other and be a part of the same conversations, but maybe this was for the best. We talked a bit about the neighborhood, the kids (they all have them, ages 5 or 6+, I’d say), etc. etc…they asked about my job, I asked about theirs. It seems like the woman two doors down from me is really plugged into the goings-on of the community. She’s on facebook groups and knows everyone. The woman whose house this was at, on the other hand, seemed to be the neighborhood busybody. They’re the two women you want to know (and two women you do not want to cross).

The conversation was all over the place, but the highlights were: tampons, how great it is having kids, lots of stuff about which food companies people who are “ethically-minded” should avoid (Jimmy John’s, Chik-fil-a, etc.), more stuff about raising kids, how much these women love booze, summer houses (oh yes, two of them have them), cleaning staff (the other woman had this!! I started feeling poor at this point in the conversation), how terrible some people in the neighborhood are (they really did sound terrible. The kind of people who steal little kids’ bikes and the like). The awesomeness of Halloween in this neighborhood…and this was all on the “girls’ side” of things. I’m not sure what the guys talked about but they seemed a little less chatty. I heard something about zombies at one point, so I’m sure it was all good.

We stayed until eleven, so about three hours. We had planned to walk over to Brewstirs for a drink but that never happened (which I think is a good thing. I’ve been wanting to have a social hour with some people in the neighborhood because I wanted some kind of friendly relationship with them and hadn’t had that chance until now).

They say they do this “every Saturday”, but I don’t know if that just means every Saturday when the weather is nice, or actually every Saturday. I’d be open to going. C could only make it every other week, since he has G on alternating weekends, but I might see about going regularly. They really are nice ladies, despite the fact that we don’t have too much in common. They don’t know this yet, but I don’t agree with a lot of their political views. I don’t think they ever HAVE to know this, because it doesn’t affect how I feel about them, but it will probably come up at some point. I don’t lie about my opinions. I’m sure it won’t matter to them, but I hope that it doesn’t come up before they’ve already decided they like me.

Anyhow, I had a really nice time.

Last updated September 22, 2014