We'll always have that trampoline between our houses

This week's Friendship Friday post is about A.K..

I first met A.K. about a week after I moved to NJ. She (and her adorable baby girl, who was 5 months old at the time) sat down right next to me at Friday night mincha minyan to introduce herself. I probably came off as a bit standoffish as I try not to talk during services. Then it turned out that we were having dinner at the same house. A few weeks later, we invited her and her husband and baby to Shabbos dinner at our house. I think they stayed until about 11:00, as we had such a nice time talking and getting to know one another. We mainly saw each other at shul when we weren't having meals together. We also had some friends in common. Our friendship was instantly comfortable, which is something I appreciated.

We invited A.K. and her husband over to play board games several times. We had similar taste in games and had a lot of fun learning more about each other that way. In early February of 2008, we found out that they would be moving next door to us. We were so excited to have neighbors that we were actually friends with. After they officially moved in April, we became even closer with them. We'd get together more often and we even hosted a garage sale one hot summer weekend. Sometimes we'd take turns watching each others' kids so the other one could get things done. We used to joke that we needed a trampoline between our houses so that we could put the kids out the window and they could bounce into the window of the other house. The other nice thing was being able to walk to and from shul together. It was a long walk, so it was nice to have the company. We had meals together more often, which was very nice. We also got together in the summer afternoons to go to the park or hang out at each others' houses. The year or so that we were next door neighbors brought us even closer as friends. Despite our good reasons for moving to MD, we were sad to leave them behind. We'd miss being able to cross into each others' yards whenever we were in the mood and hang out in each others' sukkahs in the fall. My older son loves her daughter and I was also sad to separate them.

A.K. and I have a friendship where we are just comfortable hanging out and talking. We don't have to be doing anything productive. We still find time to catch up in person, even if it's just by Skype (which never seems to be working right when we chat). We got to hang out last winter when she made it clear that she really wanted us at her daughter's birthday party. We were glad to be invited and even drove out during a snowstorm to get there. When we reached their house, she and her husband were still awake and we stayed up even later just talking. It was really nice. A.K. is one of the most down to earth and non-pretentious people I know. It's a joy to be friends with her and I'm glad we had the opportunity to be neighbors even for a little while. I still want her and her family to move to our current neighborhood, as I feel they would fit in really well here. Maybe if they got a house close enough to ours, we could finally get that trampoline....