It's A Beautiful Day

So I used to live in Suburbia Disturbia, large houses, big yards, and in our particular subdivision (or living community, as we preferred to be called) an impressive dedication to expensive car ownership. It was beautiful, really it was, and I loved my cool house, which was actually quite unique. But man, we did not hang with the neighbors. Like ever. They were either tense or on call or both tense and on call (I think you had to be an MD to live there, well except for the one single lady who lived in Hogwarts across the street, she was a DuPont). And also I kept getting accused of being the nanny, which was either offensive or a compliment and I never figured out which one it was.

Contrast with tonight, where we hung out in the neighborhood from the time the boys got home from school until bedtime. First we talked to a really nice woman from two streets over for about a half an hour about dogs while our puppies wrestled wildly on another neighbor's lawn. Then our other neighbors came to join us, and my kids ended up in their backyard. I eventually meandered over, had some wine, and we ended up sitting out on their back patio talking while the kids played dodgeball. We ordered pizza, I went home to grab some fruits and veggies, and we all ate in the backyard. Finally the kids went out on the sidewalk and drew anatomically correct chalk figures, labeling them with hilarious things like "butt" and "moron". On that note it was time for bed, and I had two filthy little dudes to corral home.