Me, anti-social?

So, as you may know, tonight is "National Night Out" or some such crap.  An evening where we are all encouraged to leave the comfortable confines of our air conditioned and TV-equipped homes to weather 100 degree heat and forced conversations with people who, simply by dumb luck, happen to live in our neighborhood.

I feel that it must be said that so far my experiences with my neighbors have been less than satisfactory.  Our first night on the block was Halloween 2003, which I thought would be a great opportunity to meet folks.  Hmmm, not so much. While several children came by to get candy from me (some of them, I noted came by more than once...) as I sat looking hopeful on our front porch, not a single adult introduced themselves or even waved back as I shouted greetings.  That hurt, I might still be carrying a grudge.

There are those who are quite rude, the "mommy mafia" who only started to acknowledge my existence when bean arrived, the busy bodies, and the next door neighbor who used to lock her dogs out in torrential downpours, leaving them to bay and cry right outside our bedroom window.  I love our house and I like the IDEA of our neighborhood...  So far, I just don't like the actual people all that much. There are exceptions, but I can go over to see those people anytime.  So, I am not all fired up to spend 2 hours sitting in the hot sun forcing myself to pretend that I care about speed bumps.   

N. says that we must go -- that we do not want to develop a reputation for being "anti-social", we don't want to impede our son's chances of healthy neighborhood friendships... he thinks that we might actually meet some nice people and make a few friends.  I am skeptically optimistic. 

I predict that I will be back inside my air-conditioned ivory tower just in time for House on FOX. But, just in case...  I set the TiVO.

Comments

[buffi]

So, how was it? We skipped the one up here. Much to toasty warm for me to have to make small talk with the neighbors. And keep up with the 3 wild children...