Our apartment requires a key for the outside doors, which all the tenants have and then an individual key for the separate apartment doors. No one else has a copy of our key, so while I knew that I would be able to get back inside the overall building, I was pretty much out of luck on getting back inside my air conditioning. I thought of calling Alissia but she's at work. I thought of calling my landlord who doesn't live too far away but I also didn't bring my phone. That's not rare though, I almost Never bring my phone to walk the dog to avoid the temptation of trying to text and having my arm torn off once Graceland sees a rabbit, squirrel, bird, plastic bag or even rolling leaf.
So, first things first, we went for our walk. No sense in keeping her from doing her business. After that, we picked a shady spot in front of the building and camped out. Occasionally I would turn on the hose on the side of the house and let her run through the sprinklers set up for the grass. Chicago summer isn't as hot as Phoenix, but I'm not rocking a fur coat. I felt really bad for poor Gracie because her mom's lack of attention to detail was going to be more torturous for her than me.
We were outside for about half an hour when one of our neighbors came home. He said hi and we chatted for a minute. I thought about asking to borrow his phone but I didn't want to bother him. He looked busy. I've seen him around a couple times with his son and his dog but I couldn't even remember his name, so I thought I'd better just tough it out, outside. I was just starting to regret that inaction, at least on GK's behalf when he came back outside. Seeing us still camped out in the grass he looked at me quizzically and I let him know about my absent keys.
At that exact moment another neighbor, Sue, came around the corner. The two of them suggested that I call the landlord and Dan (I did manage to learn his name and surely won't forget now) let me borrow his phone to do so. Keith, our landlord, said that he would swing by and Sue let GK and I into her apartment to get out of the heat while we waited.
My entire life, I've never really been the best neighbor. Don't get me wrong, if my neighbors need something, I help but I'm not so good at knowing their names, stories, actually being friends. In the house I own in Phoenix, really good friends lived next door to me on the left but I never even met the woman who lived next door on the right. When Alissia and I first moved in to this building in March, I had visions of meeting all of my neighbors, knowing them by name, inviting them to do social stuff with us. It was a really cute vision of all of the residents in our building being buddies but then I never actually got around to going door to door. I know 2 (well now 3, since I can remember Dan's name) of my neighbors by name and another 2 by sight but this building has 12 units. I've obviously not put in the kind of effort required to build that fantasy.
Of course, I have decided to rectify this. Since it's unlikely that I'm going to turn into a raging extrovert over the next week, I'm going to start slowly by making some sort of baked good awesomeness for Sue & Dan to say thank you. That will be the easy part. After that, I think I'm going to make an attempt to talk to each of the tenants over the course of the summer. That's a month and a half to intentionally greet and converse with 8 more apartments worth of people. It will take effort on my part. I'm much more comfortable with public speaking than door to door small chat, but I know that I Can do it and that it's worthwhile - not just because your neighbors might save you from endless hours locked out of your home.
So, for those of you who follow my blog regularly, I have a favor to ask. In a week or so, can you check in to make sure that I'm on target with my goals? A little accountability would be helpful and who knows, maybe I'll make baked goods for you too. :)
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