full circle

We went to a holiday party tonight, thrown by neighbors up the street and over a block. Parents we met at the bus stop. And we talked and met people and clicked with some potential new friends, people I'd be delighted to consider part of my social circle, good people, smart people, people who talk about real, chewy matters and have a sense of humor and perspective. And I'm not talking about just one person, one couple, but a number of them. A small number, but it was a smallish party and we didn't talk to everyone. People were introducing us to other people as "They just moved to town," and other people were asking us about ourselves, and it was so easy to talk, so natural. And nobody was schmoozing anyone else, nobody was trying to make the right connections to get ahead in their careers because this is no longer Los Angeles. And we had fun, and the food was superb and all homemade.

Afterwards, as we were walking home, back down the dark street along the row of stately Colonial homes, with the moon so bright filtered through mature shade trees, this picture-perfect town we live in, I felt for the first time like this could be home. Truly, deeply home. A community where I fit. A place we can stay.

I wasn't sure for a while. Montclair has a reputation as an artsy community, filled with musicians and writers and filmmakers. And there are indeed a lot of journalists and filmmakers here, mixed in with the bankers and lawyers and business folk. But I couldn't find any of the scruffy artists I remember growing up in the city. Everyone looks so clean cut, so nicely dressed. There's money in this town, and money changes everything.

But tonight I realized. Maybe I won't find one aspect of my tribe here, but I will definitely find another. The intense, direct, interesting New Yorker. They're here. And, oh, how I missed them.