Making Friends and Influencing People

This is a relatively short post summarizing the friends (ok, acquaintances) we're making here:

1. M and X (the hardware store family) - X is in his 20's and always wants to give Russell candy, whereas M loves Marshall for all the money we've spent there.

2. E - Our downstairs neighbor (male, but it is also a popular woman's name) who came up early this week (as in 6:30 a.m.) to complain about all the noise we were making... Neighborly relations improved after I took Russell down later to apologize. It doesn't help that they sleep below Russell's room, so the cars on the tile floor are like fingernails on a chalkboard for the people below. It also doesn't help that these neighbors don't go to bed until 3 a.m.

3. Curious Creature with no name - This is the lady whose lap I fell into on the bus last week. I've seen her twice since then and the last time we were verbally greeting one another and blowing kisses to each other as I disembarked the bus.

4. E and D - This woman and her 3 1/2 yr old son live two apartments beneath us. D also goes to Russell's school, but since we have no common language there isn't much to this relationship yet.

5. S - a female soldier posted near our neighborhood. Russell created a game to play with her on the bus, which led to conversation. She gave us her phone number. I reluctantly called her, thinking she was just being polite. She was THRILLED to receive the call. Apparently she had been calling the gans (kindergartens) in our neighborhood trying to find us. She has invited us to share a Friday evening meal with her family soon. Her family lives in a kibbutz near Jericho.

6. The others are too nominal to blog about immediately. We'll see how God works things out.