Porch swing and a new neighbor

porch swing, originally uploaded by robayre.

Today I can cross off one of my life’s dreams. That dream: having a front porch swing. It is not quite the porch nor is it the swing of my dreams, but it’s a swing and it’s on my porch, and I’m thrilled.
Matt and I purchased it from Lowe’s and I used a 10% off coupon that I just happened to find in the junk mail I was about to toss out. It came to less than $100, it has cushions AND it can fold down to make a bed.
While we were building it this afternoon I met a neighbor. A little boy (probably around 6 years old) was riding his scooter up and down our block. He stopped occasionally to inquire about what we were building, “Oh yeah, I want one of those,” he said as if he already has a list of home improvements to take care of. His name was Sebastian and I think I’ve made a new friend. I think Matt’s looking at him as if he were a stray animal (if you feed it, it will keep coming back). He lives in the apartment building right behind ours and goes to the same elementary school that I did when I was his age. He was waiting for his friend to come home. This totally brought back memories of summer vacations when I was a kid. The neighborhood kids were my life and I woke up with one mission, and that was to have friends to play with. Then I’d stay out till it got dark and it was time to come back in.
One thing that interests me about him is that, unlike myself, he is not shy at all to talk to strange adults. When I was a kid I was terrified of adults. I remember my sister walking us to the neighborhood 7-11 with change to buy candy (Lik-M-Aid Fun Dip, holla) and I would always ask her to buy it for me. I had the money, I was just afraid I’d have to talk to the adult at the register. I had a friend who was my same age who lived on the next block. Instead of ever going up to her door to ask if she could come out to play, I’d stand across the street and call her name until she came out. If her grandma came out to say she wasn’t home, I’d run away. Sometimes I wonder if it is the source of my shyness now. I was, SO, not shy when I was a kid (my kindergarten teacher complained that where ever she’d seat me to keep me from talking, I’d become new best friends with my new neighbor. But as I grew up, my peers grew up, and soon I was surrounded by only adults. Maybe I’m still afraid of adults?
So, anyway, Sebastian apparently doesn’t suffer from this same affliction. I gave him a sheet of plastic wrap bubbles and he asked me for two, one for his friend that he was waiting for. He asked me what grade I was, lol, when I said I was done with school, he said I could go to college and when I said I was done with college he said “That’s because you’re an adult”. When Matt came out with a diet coke, he asked for a can for himself. Nice try. When we finished the swing, we were sitting on our finished product and I brought out Bishop and Sebastian came up and sat with us and pet Bishop and talked about cats with me.
I didn’t give him any food while Matt wasn’t looking, but I sure do hope he comes around again.