Friendly Folks

photo by Kamshot

I have just been amazed at the friendliness of people out here.

I feel like i come home from running errands having made friends.

My "friends" (okay, I've been married to Landon long enough to realize that these people aren't REALLY my FRIENDS, they're just people that i like and it just makes me feel better to call them friends because i don't have any of my own here right now) consist of every other check-out lady I have had since arriving. As long as i'm not in a long line (which i'm not, because i work from home - i get to shop when everyone else is in work - it saves my sanity), the ladies just want to chat. So I've told my life story to a lady at Smith's (local grocery store), Albertson's, Joann's Fabrics, and Starbucks. Amazing. And it is actually nurturing to my soul to have these interractions that go beyond "hello". Because, believe me, i am not just a "hello" person.

Also, we have had 3 neighbors stop by to introduce themselves. When we lived in Illinois, the only neighbor to ring our door bell was the guy who had the friends who got in fist fights in our front yard, who showed up at 7am in the morning in hysteria asking to use our phone to find his - because it is his life, who stopped by to see if i saw anyone stealing his mail because he's been expecting his phone bill and he should have gotten it by now, and who was at some point institutionalized. yeah, "welcome to the neighborhood" - thanks. I guess he was a nice kid, though, just sort of made me feel uncomfortable.

Anyways, our NEW neighbors: two of them baked us goodies - that is AWESOME! i've never had a neighbor do that before! One couple even brought their high school aged son to welcome us to the neighborhood. I asked them where they lived, and they said something like, "well, if you take a left on that street down there and then go a block up and turn right, we're just right there". Wow - they're not even really my "neighbors"! I've enjoyed making a habit of smiling and waving at people. I enjoy following the speed limit in the school zones - 25 seemed rediculousley slow to me at first, but this week i've seen the kiddies skipping to school and it makes me happy to watch out for my neighbors' kids.

I don't know, i guess this is strange, i'm just so grateful to be surrounded by friendly people! I know that this probably is because there are so many Latter Day Saints here. In my experience, the Mormons were some of the friendliest people i knew when i was a kid. Maybe that's it - or maybe Utah is just a place for happy people.

Check back with me in a year and i'll let you know if i feel this way. Tonight marks 2 weeks of living in Utah - so i'm still pretty nieve. Maybe people can tell that i'm not from around here, or maybe people are so nice to me because i look lost most of the time. Even if that's the case, i'm just grateful for some friendly interractions with some nice people!