Won't you be my neighbor?

When I was in kindergarten, I had a super-cool way of meeting friends. I still remember the first time I used my friend-making system. We were getting ready to do our round robin stations as a class. I scoped out a girl that was pretty and had nice shoes (some qualities in a friend never change, do they?). After choosing the soon-to-be friend, I went and stood near her, but I didn’t say or do anything else. I waited. And then when she looked at me, I looked back with a confused do I know you? kind of look. You know, tilted head, eyebrows scrunched, lips twitched to the side. And then, here’s how it all goes down: I said, “Um, I can’t remember. Are we friends?” Hell, yeah.

And we became friends. Because when opportunity knocks, mama always said to seize it.

Twenty years later, I’m not sure I could get away with the same method, as foolproof as it once was. I guess you could say people are smarter or something. We finally met our new neighbors across the street. Matt and I think we’re a great match (obviously), but really I just want to know if they’re on board with us or not. Are they willing to play games, eat our ice cream, and let me borrow sugar or not? Let’s just get to the point – are we friends?

It’s not that we’re desperate for friends; we’re not. I just really hate that ambiguous time in a relationship when you have no idea what kind of relationship you’re in. And maybe I’m just really excited about our neighbors. Because neighbor friends are some of the best, don’t you think?

Maybe we'll even rally a game of Hide & Seek with the other neighbors. Excluding our elderly neighbor -- she can just bake us a pie.