Our House

I love our house. I really do. Sure, I complain about the ugly downstairs bathroom; the too-small deck; the too-big backyard; the old, ugly, "neighbors are starting a petition to have it replaced" fence; and of course, the bone sucking oil heat bills; but the house, the house I love. I fell in love with it the first day I walked through it when the previous owners held an open house and I proclaimed to Hubby that I "had to have it". It is not a mansion, it is not going to be appearing in the pages of Better Homes and Gardens, or even, Cottage Living; but it is ours and as such, I love it. That said, I really do not like my neighborhood. I have a great town, fabulous schools,etc. It's just my immediate neighborhood. It is so..un-neighborly.

Today we went to a friend's block party. An old fashioned, wash down the hot dog with a cold beer, block party. There were no bells or whistles anywhere, no DJ, no "bounce house", no balloon animals. And yet, it was so warm and friendly, kids running from house to house, so many baby strollers there could have been a bonny baby parade, it was a great party. I find myself being slightly...envious. (for the record, I believe envy is ugly, and I try very hard to avoid it)

I yearn for a block with lots of kids my kid's ages. I would love to know my neighbors by name, and not just them, but their in-laws and out-laws too. I want to have tons of kids converging on my house on a summer afternoon, muddying my kitchen floor in their quest for cold lemonade. I want to be able to let my kids ride their bikes down the block to see if their friend is home to play. I really, really want to have a block where every family celebrates Halloween, and I don't have to bribe anyone to come to my house by giving out full size candy bars and blasting the "Monster Mash" (although I probably still would).

Where I live everyone minds their business (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I know). The people in the house right next door have not even said two words of congratulations for the birth of Paddy boy, much less Dexter, in spite of my sending them a birth announcement and waving "hello" every time we happen to be out front at the same time. There are neighbors three doors down who could be standing next to me in line at the grocery store and I wouldn't even know it. Four doors down I am not sure if they are black or white, because I have only ever seen them speed by in their car. How ridiculous is that? It makes me feel sad because so many of my childhood memories involve neighbors, going "across the street", or "down the block". I knew all of their names. Not only would I have recognized them in the grocery store, I probably would have been given a list of what they needed and brought it home to them. I guess times were different, but I miss it and I miss that my kids won't experience it.

The first year we lived here we hosted a neighborhood party, not a block party really, but a backyard pot-luck. It was nice, but it didn't inspire the type of camaraderie I had hoped. Where I live, every house is an island unto itself.

Oh well, you can't control everything. I love my house. I love my privacy. My husband is on the parkway in 2 minutes or less, my in-laws are right down the block (which has never, ever been a bad thing)and, the bus stop is right outside my door. We won't be having a block party any time soon, I will forever be driving to play dates, and borrowing another neighborhood for trick-or-treat, but there are good things about where I live. Envy is ugly mostly because it is blind and sees only what it wants to see. I need to take some time to look closer at the good things about the old homestead. For instance, I really love the color of the walls in my living room...