New Friends and Old

Two days ago my neighbor on the corner of the hall knocked on my open door to introduce himself, which I thought was a very nice and neighborly thing to do. I usually keep my door open to let fresh air move through the apartment, and to let Alice roam the hall if she wants to (though she usually stays in and sleeps). I guess I also still have something of a dorm mentality, even though these are apartments, not dorm rooms. When I was at Stanford in the dorms I always had my door open, and even though sometimes I didn't feel like I had a whole lot of friends who would actually stop by to see me, it was nice to have the door open and have people passing by and sometimes poking their heads in to say hi. So I suppose there's some remnants of the dorm sociality in my open door habits. Anyway, it was nice that this guy came and introduced himself, though I don't know if he's the sort of guy I will actually become friends with -- some of his first questions were "Do you drink? Do you like to party?" and were followed closely by "Do you like to hang out and watch movies?" Now, I don't mind a good movie now and then, but I'm not really into the whole drinking and partying thing, so I don't know how often I'll be knocking on his door to hang out. But it is nice to know him, to know his name, and to start getting familiar with the people on my hall. Now I know two of them! I have become pretty good friends with John, who lives on the other side of the building, and hopefully I'll start getting to know some of my other neighbors as well.

In the last week, in addition to meeting new people, I've started reconnecting with some older friends. I met a previous coworker and friend, Diana, from my My Own Labels days. I took the bus to meet her at the new company building, which is huge and spacious and big and amazingly quiet and subdued (did I mention it felt big?) They have two firemans' poles. :) It was neat to see some people again, but I was suprised that there were only four people left that I actually knew. It seems that a lot of people have gone back to school recently, so there were a lot of new people, along with the end of the summer help. After I got the tour Diana came over and saw my apartment and garden, then we went and ate nachos and had a good chat. It was fun to see her again, and we exchanged jams -- my raspberry for her unsweetened plum. Yay for jam buddies! :)

In other "old friend" news, I've also gotten back in touch with Sarah, from way back in highschool. Hooray! We're hoping to get together for breakfast or something while I'm down in Santa Cruz in a couple of weeks, which would be very fun. We saw each other about two years ago (I think?), and it's about time for another catch-up session. Hooray for reconnecting with friends from all walks of life!

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Current Magnetic Poetry:
explore the rhythm of peace
let laughter inspire you
to newborn trust
in a strange yet familiar world
love slowly but deeply
remember your wildness