You know how every now and then, you meet people who are super cynical and kind of a buzzkill (raising my hand now)? So I mentioned before how I recently came across a name from my childhood on the neighborhood social media site, NextDoor. Mind you, I wasn’t stalking or digging around (though I’m not beyond that) at the time: I was simply trying to find the email address of a neighbor a few doors down, whom I had just met.

Anyway, when I clicked on the “Members” list, an alphabetical roster came up and I saw this name, let’s just say it’s “Adam Bowers,” except that it was kinda a specific/unique name. Long story short, I reached out to him, he is INDEED the guy from my childhood and we made plans to meet, esp bc we now live two streets away. So I just thought it was the most interesting story about how two people from the same neighborhood, same middle/high school, both with fathers in medicine (his dad was my pediatrician), went from that small hometown all the way across the country to the same exact neighborhood in California. I mean, sure there were other details too like about me having a minor crush on him and we were in the same calculus class, blah, blah. BUT, I thought it was just an entertaining story. So when we were over for dinner recently at our very next door neighbor’s house (the one with the little girl who used to walk Martin), I told my story. And the dad just said, “Yeah, I find that nothing ever happens after those meetings. You never stay in touch or become friends or anything.” Um, I mean, I have def had my share of Debbie Downer days, but geez, way to burst my bubble, right? Where are my positive friends G and T when I need them?

Fast forward a few months and AB and his fam finally come over for wine and snacks last night. Haha, that’s my newest thing now– no dinner, just wine and snacks. It’s so much easier than cooking a full meal. Anyway, AB is married and has two kids. We had a nice time catching up. It’s funny bc he was at Duke after I left, so he and his wife are both familiar with the RDU area. They both work in tech and moved to the ‘hood the same year we did: 2010. We talked about their kids and their activities. Then I was feeling like we are nearing the end of a good conversational run… then, AB saw my skateboard by the fireplace. Incidentally, he used to be a skater, and his kids now skateboard! And he takes them to the nearby skate park— the one I’ve been meaning to scout out so I can practice. So whatdya know, now we’re talking about going over to the skate park together with the kids. AB says there’s a half pipe and he skated on it recently and crashed big time. The kids at the park even came up to ask if he was ok. Haha. Guess it had been 20+ years since he skated, but he said some of it came back. So yeah, we’ll see if that moves forward.

Later, J told me: “Yeah, they seem like really nice people but since they have kids, they don’t really have free time or adult-only time so as our conversation with them progressed, I kept thinking, ‘where is this going?'” Jesus. Who are you, my next door neighbor? I mean, I know what he’s saying. Parents, esp modern-day parents who like attend every. single. kid activity, really don’t have time for much else. So I dunno: maybe we’ll end up checking in with each other in another 10 years. That said, I just like the idea of knowing someone nearby in case of an emergency or whatever. We’ll see.