New Neighbors

So, what's the protocol with new neighbors?

We've got two now, and I'm probably more excited than I need to be. A new family moved in right next door to us last week, and this week the other vacant house beside us is getting a new couple as well. And, because I'm socially inept, I don't know what to do.

Do people still give out gifts to their neighbors?

My parents never did, but they weren't social people. Sure, my mom kept up with what was happening... via police scanner... so, yeah.

I don't want to come off as needy. Just because we live next door to them doesn't automatically make them my new BFFs. But, I don't want to be mean. When we moved in people were nice to us, the older lady across the street even baked us a cake.

Should I make a cake?

Oh man, it's like I've been living in a cave.

My husband suggested a nice bottle of wine, and then I immediately freaked out with, "what if they're teetotallers" and my husband came back at me with, "stop reading Little Women," and, yes we fought.

Maybe a plant? A card? A polite hello?

...

I'm never making friends.

One Fine Day

Well, I'm sick. I've got some kind of crappy cough, coupled with a headache and a runny nose. The paranoid side of me immediately jumps from common cold, to swine flu, to bubonic plague. The reasonable side just assumes it's ebola.

Also, I've already ruined a budding friendship with one neighbor, by 1) being too ditzy to figure out who was one the phone, and 2) being too sick to pick up the phone and give a reasonable excuse. I still feel like feet today, but I'm going to give her a call back and try and explain myself proper. I'm sure it will be a disaster. What can I say; it's a gift.

The only bright spot of this morning, and actually of the past few days, has been this video clip my friend April sent me.

Enjoy the awesomeness of Daughtry. Finally, I can understand the words to that damn song!

Making Friends, Offline

Is it sad, or just a sign of the times, that I can't think of any way to make friends in my new neighborhood that doesn't involve Facebook?

The Internet has seriously hindered my already lacking social skills.

I grew up naturally shy.  I was always awed at how easy my family could fall into conversations with strangers.  Don't get me wrong, I had friends, but they were friends I'd made through school.  Everyone, no matter how cripplingly shy, makes at least one friend at school.  I left home fairly young and having joined the military, was forced out of my shell.  Making friends with co-workers wasn't hard, because it was virtually impossible not to do, and that's how it's been ever since.

Now that I'm not working, I'm beginning to realize that I'm going to have to put some kind of effort into meeting new people, and, um, well... I don't know how.

Okay, I guess I don't know how without coming off like a crazy stalker.

Sure, I could "pop" outside my door everytime my neighbor does and strike up some pre-scripted conversation, but that's just creepy.  Plus, what if they veered off script?  I can't improvise.

What I need is a plan.  I need to get out to the parks, the librarys, to the grocery stores; to whereever it is that other stay at home moms stay when they aren't staying at home.  I know they are out there.  I can't be the only one.  I need to find them, befriend them, and have real face-to-face conversations with them, you know, like people used to do.

...

On second thought, maybe I'll just stick to this blog.