I wanted to write about something last night, but instead watched a movie with my husband and then today spent the morning in the yard, the midday with the kids at the beach and the afternoon back in the yard, of course. The growth in my garden is amazing and I am awestruck since the only other thing I have ever grown, from a seed... so to speak, was my children. I feel like I did a pretty good job there as well.
I was driving home yesterday from shopping and saw a man, walking down the road at 7pm at night (still a lot of daylight) with a traffic vest on. The kind that is reflector yellow with the bands of reflector tape around it. He was walking with his dog down a somewhat busy road in a very residential area... waving. He waved at every car, I waved back, happily. But I wondered how many other people waved to him as well. I also wondered why he was waving, it was a bit odd, but I'll sum it up to being overtly friendly.
I live in a neighborhood with lots of kids, kids I don't know who belong to parents I don't know. Our "subdivision" (the only thing that makes us a subdivision in my book is the check I write to the HoA every year for dues) is two different streets with two cul de sacs branching off and in the one year we've lived here, I have talked to two of my neighbors and one was a awkward confrontation. The other one is a friendly relationship with my next door neighbor, but it isn't too friendly. Nods here or there, friendly conversation. As for everyone else, it's like they don't exist. I make attempts here or there to wave as I pass other neighbors, but the looks I have gotten usually deter me now. I waved to one of neighbors yard men the other day as he was riding his bike to her house and I thought he was going to crash. On the way home, he waved back at me, maybe he recovered from the shock of a friendly person. I want to greet other people in stores and not get looks for it. I was talking to my friendly neighbor this morning and basically told him in nicer words how anti-social I felt this neighborhood/community seems and he asked me if I was from around here. No, I'm not, but that doesn't mean good manners and a neighborly attitude shouldn't apply here.
I met a very friendly almost 10 year old yesterday at a Redbox with her father. She sang the five dollar footlong song to me, but replaced the lyrics with 5 days til' my birthday. That was a friendly family, good for them.
I really enjoyed this. I was thinking about stranger friendliness today too. I let a lady at the park use our cell phone and Danny got mad at me for it. I also made a conscious effort to be friendly with the Publix cashier. We live next door to a lady who works at the Publix we frequent and every time she's our cashier I feel like I should somehow acknowledge that we are neighbors but I'm not sure how or if she even realizes this...Our upstairs neighbors that just recently moved in are pretty friendly. The lady always smiles at me and says hello and it always seems so genuine.
ReplyDelete5 days...5 days...5 days til my birthdaaaaay