The softball team I compete with had a game at a park I haven't seen in a long time. In fact, we've basically been playing at the same two parks the whole year, one for practice, the otherfor games. And I must say, this new park caught my eye.

Not the shiny grass, there was no shiny grass. Not the ridiculously, yet necessarily, tall backstop fence. Not even the all the dust that was kicked up in the process of teams hitting/fielding that ball. I wear glasses, and nothing gets caught in my eye that easily (take that all you contact wearers).

It was the constant interupptions from little kids playing in the adjacent portions of the park, the elderly slowly making their way from one side of the field to the other side on an afternoon stroll, and lastly the youth that were probably trying to annoy us by being there for no good reason at all. Seriously, the mall is just over there, please go loiter there, or else be prepared to be attacked by a softball.

This is not meant to be an angry post.

I liked the feeling of a vibrant community, where there were kids out playing, where teens weren't couped up inside playing whatever that cool computer game is now-a-days, and where the elderly weren't sitting in a bingo hall. Minor inconveniences to our softball game, and the fact that our team received yet another thrashing of epic proportions aside, I thoroughly enjoyed myself that day.

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of having people out in the neighborhood. If I were ever to be a home-owner, I would ensure I have interactions with my neighbors, and that I see them somewhat regularly, even if it's just a simple "Hi! Watering your petunias? Yeah, my daises don't seem to be doing so well in this scorching summer heat. Oh bother, I'm off to see the Wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz". And I'm going to let you in on why I hold to this.

Ready?

I don't think you are.

Is it really too much to ask you to just lean up against the monitor just a little closer? Get up out of that chair, you can do it put your back into it.

I need to know that my neighborinos aren't BLOOD SUCKING VAMPIRES who will abuct my beautiful children and drain them of their vital red fluid, and their souls.

Simple as that. I know that having a chit-chat in sunlight will not rule them out as serial killers or creepy obsessive cheese eaters, but sometimes, it's a matter of deduction. After I figure out they aren't the undead, then I can cross that off the list of paranoias, and then move onto the next.

Notice the jump from point A to point orange in a span of three paragraphs? Please hold your applause, I'm still going to be here tomorrow.

Plus, call me old school, but it would be great to have some trustworthy neighbors just in case your kids come home from school one day and find themselves locked out because they either forgot their key, or had them stolen. At least they would have the option of going over to the friendly neighbor and kicking it there in front of (hopefully) their big screen TV. See, saying that my neighbors are rich is an implication that I will be living in a rich neighborhood, and thus by extension I will be filthy rich.

Which I was discussing with a fellow intern today, getting rich that is. Which would be the better way, winning the lottery or marrying rich? Discuss.

Please, I know both are entirely wrong and horrible in every possible way, but just for fun, I get really bored at work and like to discuss just about anything and everything this side of Moby Dick.