I like it when I get emails that say “I think we’d be friends in real life.”
Because I think so too.
I qualify this statement because A) you read something I wrote, weren’t scared away and took time out of your busy life to write me an email. B) There’s very few people that I don’t want to be friends with and C) One can never have enough friends.
The sad trombone part of this story is that when I open my front door I don’t see any of my friends. I have a few here and there around my town…but outside my front door? None. If I needed a cup of sugar? The grocery store clerk is the only one who could help me. My dad lives on a street where they host regular neighborhood get togethers in their driveway, like launching fireworks off the grumpy neighbors sidewalk on the fourth of July or the annual pumpkin carving contest on Halloween.
Everybody knows everybody else and growing up there were always friends to play with and people to talk to. It remains true to this day.
I miss that.
The bigger question I have to ask myself is would I trade a street full of neighborly folks for the neighborhood I have online? I have a friend in New York who sent Addie ballet shoes from Julliard and black and white cookies for me. I have a friend who let us crash in her guest room with almost no notice in Denver. I have plans to eat cherry pie with everyone who lives in Michigan. I also have several Canadian Kit Kat suppliers. I could wake up in almost any city tomorrow morning and have a friend there who knows where the best pastries are. Not to mention I’ve had several friends come through Indy where I had a warm bed and tasty food to offer them.
You know what else I just realized? My friends are googleable.
I can check in on them, keep track of them and they can do the same for me.
The other day I decided I’m going to be basing my opinions and judgments of people on how they felt during the first 15 minutes of the movie “Up.” (these four minutes specifically.)
Based on the answers I got on both facebook and twitter?
We’d get along just fine.
I have a feeling most everybody would get along with everybody if we were simply honest with ourselves and kind to others around us.
And I do hope we get the chance to share pastries someday.
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” -Dr. Seuss (he and I would have been grand friends as well.)
making unbreakable - formerly moosh in indy. 
Seeing that STILL (not even the clip!) made my eyes well with tears.
GAH!
LikeLike
Me too. I can’t wait to meet you someday. It’s hard to believe we’re so close and SO far away. 🙂
LikeLike
❤
LikeLike
I refuse to watch that video right now. Because I just put on mascara.
LikeLike
Again with the ‘I could have written these very same words’ posting thingy. YOU.
LikeLike
I can’t bring myself to watch that clip because I sob every single time. And then my husband and kids make fun of me (mainly my three year old who rolls her eyes and asks why mom is “freaking out again”).
I think we’d be friends. Next time you come to St Louis, you’ve got a bed in this house of chaos.
LikeLike
So where does “fighting back tears so my kids don’t see Daddy cry and start crying themselves” fit in? I love Up.
LikeLike
For an added tear jerker, if you love Dug, watch the little feature on the DVD called Dug’s Special Mission(?). That one gets to me too…
LikeLike
I’ve forced myself into “real” social circles the last two years to try to conquer my social anxieties and I’ve realized two important things: 1) “Real” people aren’t as scary as I thought, many are a lot like me 2) I wish EVERYONE had a blog so I could learn more about people who I do befriend, I find I’m very impatient with the “real time” it takes to get to know people without blogs. 🙂
LikeLike
Wish you lived in our neighborhood!! It would be great to have you and see you more often!
LikeLike
I’m glad we got to be friends BEFORE you found out that I’ve never seen UP — or even wiki’d it to find out what happens.
I’m in the life-raft/boat; all my friends live far far away. But I’m glad to have social media to keep in contact with them, or the 15 years that have passed since I’ve seen some of them would feel worse.
Hoping to stop by for pie soon. Pray for lower gas prices ASAP!
LikeLike
You know what? That scene makes ME choke up, and I don’t choke up at anything.
LikeLike
Oh my goodness, I hadn’t seen that before. So sweet, we should all be so fortunate.
LikeLike
I have seen that movie more times than I can count and that part still gets me every. single. time.
Sweetest movie.
LikeLike
You. ARe completely adorable. And tough. And delightful, just like UP.
LikeLike
Next time you come through Louisville you’ve got a friend for dinner. Or dessert.
LikeLike
Bravo! What a beautiful post.
LikeLike
We would totally be friends IRL if I was in indy. But far away friends are fantastic too.
LikeLike
Friend? If you make it to Boston while I still live here (which, honestly, is hopefully only through August), you and I have a date at Mike’s Pastry for a chocolate-covered ricotta cannoli or two (or three).
After August, pastries and locations TBD.
P.S. Up? Crinkles my heart like a tiny red piece of tissue paper.
LikeLike
I would so be friends with you if I lived in Indy, and not St. Louis! Plan to stop by anytime your in the area, we can go out and snap pictures together!!
LikeLike
I am proud to be a friend of yours.
LikeLike
Oh, I want to put that couple in my pocket and keep them!
That whole movie yanks at my strings. But those four minutes…in the movie theater I nearly hid under my seat so I didn’t look like a total goober in front of my family. Then I realized they all expected it, so whatever (my now 13 year old actually gave me an awe-shucks pat on the shoulder).
🙂
LikeLike
The beginning of up was so beautiful to me. It summed up my life (thus far). I married a wonderful guy (we didn’t grow up together) as they did in “Up”, but we are perfect together. We began our quest to have a child in 2000 and had one pregnancy and a miscarriage. I teared up seeing this replayed in the movie. It is a beautiful and honest view of so many couples’ struggles with infertility.
I know that you know this kind of pain too. I know we’d be friends. And if you find yourself in Louisville, KY, you are welcome to visit me or sleep on my couch.
LikeLike
I don’t have a blog for you to get to know me but I would love to meet you for pastries anytime. I am (probably) right around the corner!
LikeLike
We don’t know each other either- but you’re welcome to come eat pastries with me in Milwaukee any time. 🙂
LikeLike
Dammit, I knew better than to press play, now I went and ruined my makeup. Although I can cry just *thinking* about that clip–and I positively bawled my eyes out the first time we watched it.
We would so be friends. 🙂
LikeLike
I’m a little bitter about Up. I asked a bunch of people if it was OK to take my almost 5 year old to and got a RESOUNDING ‘yes he’ll love it.’ Well. Not only did he spend weeks asking me what happened to their baby, and where’s that boy’s parents, and what happened to his friend, did she DIE MOM?!!?! There’s also the storm scene that had him wrapped around my head. So. Maybe I’d feel differently if I had seen it without my (admittedly very observant and sensitive) child. Kinda feel left out since so many people love this movie!
LikeLike
I cried. Long, drawn out sobs. For about the first 30 minutes of the movie, right there in the theater. Hard enough that my husband asked me if I was ok. Admittedly, I was 5 months pregnant and had a tendency to break down in tears at the drop of a hat, but still. Bawling in the theater.
Can we still be friends?
LikeLike
Awww, my favorite movie, EVER. LOVE it, and your post is so sweet. I couldn’t agree with you more, and you’re as sweet in person as you are online. That, I can testify. 🙂
LikeLike
Awww I freaking love you to bits, my dear sweet Casey.
And the movie Up is the sweetest thing ever. Especially the beginning. Makes me cry like a baby every time.
LikeLike
After the first part of up, I tearfully asked my husband if that was the end. Because really, the rest of the movie paled in comparison to the first part. While it would have been somewhat of a sad ending, it would have been world changing if the movie ended right there.
LikeLike
P.S. – I wanted to say “it would have been epic if if ended right there”. But my friends would never say epic and so neither will I.
LikeLike
I loved Up so much that I have the Ellie badge tattoo on my arm.
LikeLike
“I have a feeling most everybody would get along with everybody if we were simply honest with ourselves and kind to others around us.”
YES. This. You are a wise woman, Casey. “Up” makes me BAWL like a baby (and only partially because Carl and Ellie remind me of my Great Grannie & Grandpa). I would be honoured to be part of the Canadian Kit Kat Brigade Backup. 🙂
LikeLike
there was ugly, ugly crying when I saw that movie. I scared several children in the theater, i’m sure.
We live in a really nice neighborhood, but we don’t really know anyone on our street. I’m hoping that changes as the weather gets nicer…but we’ve been here for 6 months and haven’t met anyone yet. It’s sad. I wish I had that too.
LikeLike
OMG, UP makes me bawl.
We WOULD be friends. Meeting you at BlogHer last year made me so happy. I love seeing my inernet friends in the flesh. (And giving them uncomfortably long hugs.) I would bring you sugar. And cookies. And probably something fried. If you’re ever in the deep south, you are coming to my house. I’ll take you to the park with the faces in the trees so you can take pictures.
LikeLike
That was my son’s first “in the theater” movie. Why wouldn’t they warn a person on that? Here I am, with my three-year-old, bawling my eyes out in an theater.
“Mom–why are you crying? What’s wrong, Mom? MOOOOOOM.” Sigh.
I also cried at the end of Toy Story 3.
Pixar films are now on my “Don’t View in Public” list.
Also, the Dr. Suess quote? I always, always say what I feel. It gets me in trouble. Sometimes. But you know what? I just deal. And roll on.
LikeLike
Oh, how I’d love to be your friend! I feel like we’ve bonded this year over less-than-enjoyable pregnancies, depression, etc. And if we ever have the opportunity to sit down together and knock back a beer, let’s do it!
LikeLike
Psh, I already consider you my friend. Who cares about that whole meeting face to face thing. Besides, we totally tried that one time when you were in New Mexico but weather intervened.
I still look forward to the day when we do meet up. We shall be the TWO strange, sober, dancing, Mormon, redheads on the floor of a random blog conference.
LikeLike
I’m gonna refuse to watch that video cause I have fancy eye makeup on today.
But I always think to myself… I would be friends with the whole internet cause we all love cupcakes. I mean, really, what’s more awesome than cupcakes?
I’m just meeting some of my new neighbors since moving. I’m nervous since I was so close to my old neighbors… but I’m bringing cookies. Those help, right?
LikeLike
I feel like my heart has been crumpled up into a tiny ball like aluminum foil, but in a good way. Is that ok?
LikeLike
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Lovely post! Love, someone who, on most days, loves my Internet friends more than my IRL friends : /
LikeLike
a) I am so beyond flattered to have made this list.
b) I refuse to watch the video while hormonal.
c) As soon as that baby comes out get thee up north. We will bring out the sunshine for you.
LikeLike
If you ever make it to Seattle, we will get the best chocolate croissants this side of France. For reals.
LikeLike
Beautiful post. I haven’t seen UP but now am sure I’d be in tears.
Come to Vancouver and we’ll go for Hot Chocolate at Trees. My favorite place to people watch and unwind.
HUGS
LikeLike
oof, my heart. now I’m bawling. thanks a lot, casey. sheesh. and was he the only one at her funeral our did he just stay after bc he didn’t know how to go home without her? *sobs*
LikeLike
lalalalala. I’m not watching!
We’ve been in this house 14 years and I find myself in the same boat as you. Sure I’m friendly to people on the street, and they were very kind when we (finally) had V, but there are no neighbourhood get-togethers like I remember my parents having (man they were a 70’s suburban cliche. Well, except with no key parties. God I hope no key parties…anyways.
This is the number one reason I’m so excited to be moving the end of may. The ‘village’ we’re moving too is home to 4 of my knitwits, and another 2 are a stone’s throw away. AND they have kids V’s age. Hubby doesn’t see this as a selling feature…they scare him I think.
Sorry for the blah, blah, blah, the internet is awesome, and you’re welcome to come crash at mine any time.
LikeLike
So here’s the thing, I’m like the only person I know who HASN’T seen the movie UP but I just sobbed like a baby at that clip. I’m assuming that means we are still friends.
LikeLike
I become a crying mess everytime I watch that movie. You are lovely, inside & out. It would be a blessing to have friends like you. 🙂
LikeLike
As someone who barely knows my IRL neighbors and from what I know they think we’re weirdos, I can say that I really wish all of my internet friends lived in one neighborhood where we could see each other everyday.
Or at least all in the same city. Or state.
Until then, I have to settle for few and far between in-person meetings and lots of written words in-between.
And that scene in Up? Total sob fest. It’s hard to explain to my kids why I’m all teary at that point.
LikeLike
My husband and I both sob several times during Up…every time we see it. I first saw it in the theatre with a friend and we were both crying. All of the adults in the theatre were sniffling while the kids looked at them like, “What?” I couldn’t even tell my husband about it when I got home without sobbing! He was like, “There’s no way it was that sad.” Until he saw it. 😛
LikeLike