The Good Side of Guilt

For awhile now I have been feeling guilty about not talking to my neighbors. I say hello to them but that's about where I end it. I try not to compare myself to others but when I do I fall terribly short in the neighbor catagory. So tonight I decided to give it another try. I got home about 9:15 and one of the grandma's was just comming out. We started to talk and then another one came out. Eventually I was sitting on the bench talking to three grandma's. Mostly I just listened but I did ask a few questions and get some advice. I asked them how to make Kompoat, a Russian fruit drink. They gave me directions so tomorrow I need to go to the market and buy fruit because they will all ask me how it turned out. They talked about many different things ranging from the neighborhood gossip to the prices of food and where the best deals are. They were very friendly and nice to me. I know now that the summer is here I need to spend some evenings on that bench. Oh, but I must sit on the right bench. There are two benches, one for each enterance. I live in the first enterance and so do "my grandma's." We must sit at the first bench and gaurd it from the second enterance dwellers. It is quite interesting. I guess I'm lucky to be in the first bench crowd.