So I'm not one to have a lot of friends. I never have been really. I have usually had a couple of good friends here and there. The ones I boasted as "best friends" have somehow disappeared, but that's another post entirely. My whole point is that I am making a new friend.
The chicka who moved in a couple of houses down and I really get along. It all started when she had the trunk of her van loaded with Girl Scout cookies. Yep, give me some Thin Mints and I'm dedicated to you for life. *smile* The weather here was still pretty shitty then, so there wasn't much of a chance to get out and get to know her. But she had two kids, a girl and a boy. Grace and the boy hit it off right from the giddyup. While I was scoring with cookies they were chasing one of mom's cats around the house. Instant buddies, those two.
A few weeks later I was taking a bicycle for a spin. The chicka was sitting out in her driveway to keep an eye on her kids. I warned her as I was zooming fast that I wasn't very graceful and couldn't be held responsible if I ran over her toes. And somehow that started a conversation. I stood in her driveway for an hour and a half that night talking to her. She made me laugh.
She's real. That's what I like most of all. There isn't any mask or false demeanor. She is what she is. And my girls adore her kids. We usually end up spending a couple of hours together a night, sitting in the backyard and talking. She lives on the other side of the Hostess Factory so she has a lot of tales and questions. We're never short on conversation.
A couple of weeks ago I was telling her about the creepy couple who used to live around the corner. The main gist of it was that if you looked at their yard and my yard it would have been easy to mistake the two. They used the same layout for their yard. The same pond. The same plants. And once I even saw a statue of a dog from my yard sitting in theirs. I was telling Neighbor about this and we laughed about my going into the yard and stealing back my little doggie.
So Da Man, the girls, and I had gone somewhere the afternoon after relaying the story. When we returned home Neighbor's son said, "Guess what's missing?" We looked and looked and couldn't come up with anything. And then he rolled on his mom. She had sent her daughter into my yard to steal my little doggie statue and they put him in her flower garden. We laughed about it.
A week ago I spotted a huge rabbit in their garbage pile. I had never spoken with Neighbor's husband but decided that he was going to have to meet me one day. So I walked into his yard and asked what they were going to do with the bunny. Now bear in mind that this bunny is Grace's height. Husband told me that it was going to the Goodwill. I told him that his wife had played a joke on me and I wanted to get her back. He laughed and told me that I could have the bunny. He failed to mention that it was made of solid concrete, so he got to meet Da Man too when I discovered there was no way in hell I was moving the bunny by myself.
Once the bunny was in our house, the fun started. I shredded a garbage bag to look like a grass skirt. I used an egg carton and some clover blooms to make a bra. And I strung some pink silk daisies on yarn for a lei. Da Man carried the bunny outside, sat it in the yard, and lit a Tiki torch beside it. It was friggin' hilarious, the bunny dressed as a hula dancer. And the neighbor lost it. She also decided to keep the hula bunny instead of giving it away. Hula Bunny is still in her yard.
I have to admit that it's nice to have someone to talk to. Someone without any preconceived notions or agendas. And she's an excellent diversion from the Twinkies.
The Twinkies...I wish I had the time to talk about their new palm tree. Hell, I wish I had the nerve to post pictures of their abode on here. You would die. And you'd probably insist that I begin calling around and voicing complaints. Really, it's *that* bad.
I am going to go on and take care of some things. I spent the evening making end of the year gifts for Grace's teacher and teacher's assistants, and the bus driver. They turned out quite well, even if I do say so myself. I'm pleased. Now I'm going to jump at the opportunity to squeeze a few more minutes of me time in before I am undoubtedly interrupted.