So people keep asking me: Are you feeling settled yet? Are you meeting new people?

Truth is I have met very few people besides my neighbors and a few friends of my sister-in-law’s who, technically, I had already met. Last week I had drinks with a potential new friend: that listener who recognized my voice at the swimming pool. Remember her? Only problem is she just put her house on the market because she’s being transferred to New Jersey! (Note to any MM listeners in the Jersey area, awesome gal coming your way).

I do miss my old neighborhood something terrible. I don’t know how to describe the feeling. The way my old house was situated on a hill I could open the front door and just feel connected to the other homes around me. Here, our house is surrounded by trees. In front and out back. We get plenty of sun but it feels so secluded to me. More so than it actually is. It’s also very overgrown right now. In a few days the landscapers will be here to give the whole place a trim. That should do wonders.

Unfortunately, the trees do not block the sound of my screaming voice, as my husband so kindly pointed out to me over the weekend. The boys were playing with the hose out back, spraying water all over the deck and flooding the yard before they took aim at the central AC compressor. I started screaming to them out the sliding door, “Knock it off! Boys! Stop it right now! Shut off that water!”

The next day husband said to me, “Well, any neighbor who hasn’t met you yet sure did yesterday with all of your crazy screaming.”

Which reminded me of when my former neighbor in Massachusetts spotted me in the street and said, “Well, well. There’s my neighbor who I never see, but always hear!”

So I guess I am feeling a bit more at home here after all!