I love our neighborhood

Our next door neighbors had a cookout for Father's Day, and several families from the neighborhood came with their children. I literally had to bite my lip at one point to keep from gushing; "This is so cool! I love you guys! I am so happy that we moved here!" Partly because I felt that would seem strangely emotional for a barbeque and because I am guessing that it's fairly normal for many neighbors to spend time with one another, and also because I had drunk enough wine by that point that I wasn't sure how I would feel about it in the morning.

Now that a couple days have passed I can say with some certainty that I do indeed feel that way. After 5 years in our last home, I never felt this type of community with the people I lived next to. Of course, we were civil and waved hello, etc., but the general feeling was that we just happened to share space near one another and that was no reason to be friends or anything.

I feel generally less stressed since we've moved-not sure why exactly- but it feels like time has slowed down to a more reasonable pace. There is less noise here, less artificial light, less traffic. People smile at me and say "hi" when we pass on the street. Our mail carrier stops to chat. We leave our doors open most of the time.

Old Baby and the girl next door just sort of drift back and forth between yards and our two houses and their meals are eaten wherever they happen to be at the moment (if they time it right, sometimes dessert happens twice). Instead of calling on the phone, my neighbor literally sticks her head in our door if she has something to say to me.

Where in the world did we move...Maybury?