Rock the Block?

This past Friday we attended a block party on our street. The flyer promised to "ROCK OUR BLOCK!" Sounded exciting. And maybe some really cool people were throwing it...you never know!

Well...many of you have hard me kvetch that our neighborhood seems quite conservative (in Utah speak that means "mormon") and in our two years living here I think I've met a total of about six households of neighbors. Of those six, only one set regularly chat us up. I'm not really sure why...maybe it's just living in a bigger city or people just have so many kids they don't have time for their neighbors, but that's the way it is. Everyone just kind of keeps to themselves for the most part.

Leading up to the big event I made some yummy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, joked about how there would probably be 200 kids there, and argued with Ash about whether or not we should take a cooler of beer to share. Which, in ANY other part of the country would be a totally normal and almost expected thing to do, but in this neighborhood where we've had 8-year-olds heckle us for 'hearing' beer bottles in our trash, I was kind of leaning against it. Ash has a rebellious, antagonistic side that I don't have. I don't like to make anyone mad, usually, no matter how silly it is. So, we compromised and he took a couple of beers for himself in our sack with the rest of our food.

So, we walk down half a block to the house that was hosting the party. We were immediately greeted by a very nice group of women and then Helena TAKES OFF down the sidewalk back to our house. Literally sprints yelling "I DON'T WANT TO GO TO THE PARTY. I'M GOING HOME!" Great first impression, Helena. Jeez. Ash retrieves Helena, who is screaming, and we try to ignore her and make nice with the neighbors. Bribing her with cookies doesn't help, she refuses to play with the 50 other children there, and eventually settles into playing on her car by herself. We obviously need to get out more.

I would guess there are probably more than 50 houses on our street...kind of an isolated bend in the road for the massive suburban subdivision we live in. I would guess there were probably 15 households in attendance at the block party. I think I chatted with almost everyone there by the end of the evening. I met some nice mom's who have kids around the same ages as ours and hopefully that might materialize into some play dates down the road.

All in all, an OK time. No new best friend, or anything, though. Despite my nervousness I think I did a good job chatting people up. But nothing spectacular. Except for the fruit pizza, in my opinion. I love a good fruit pizza.

Oh, and Ash was the only one with a beer at the party. Which pretty much confirms our suspicions about our surroundings. And not that we can't be friends with people who don't drink, but it's a good starting point. :) Hopefully next year they'll have a better turnout -- I'm still holding out hope that there are at least a few people around the 'hood that we have a bit more in common with. Look at me being optimistic at 39 weeks pregnant!

-Emily :)