Last night I played Bunco with some neighborhood chickies. My next-door neighbor Patty invited me to join the group a few days ago. I’d been looking forward to meeting some of the neighborhood ladies but I was a bit worried. Will they like me? Will I say something completely stupid and inappropriate and make them think I’m a social retard? Because if there’s anything I do extremely well, its that.

When faced with a big group of people and given that whole, “tell us your name and something about yourself” request, I will often say something like, “Hi. I’m Lisa. I have four great loves in my life — my hubby, my little boy, Target and Russell Stovers. Most days I love them all equally. But some days, Target and Russell win hands-down.” This doesn’t always go over so well. So I was a bit hesitant to open my mouth. I didn’t know them well and I didn’t want to offend anyone. But I soon learned I had nothing to worry about.

I immediately liked all of these women. They were lively, quick and sassy. They had such an easy rapport with each other. My stomache is sore from laughing so hard. And when they joked about drinking beer by 3 p.m. some days because “DAMN these kids are driving me crazy”, I knew these were my kinda women. They aren’t going to judge me if they see me sitting on a bench near the cul-de-sac at noon with a wine cooler looking completely shell shocked while my child screams at his imaginary friend. They aren’t going to think me a horrible person if I confess how much I would love to sometimes put a little shock collar on my child to make him STOP TALKING FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY. Because they have likely thought this same thing.

I think I’ve found my “home”.