Neighbors

Today I am thankful for the 3 hours I had at Barnes and Noble last night. I read a little and wrote a lot and loved sitting there in the quiet of my thoughts. I got lost for three hours in the fiction I was writing and all the possibilities of the non-fiction I was reading. I truly am a different person when I get to steal away there for a few hours.

I am VERY thankful that the mouse problem is no longer! It's been over a week and nothing! I still think I was right about the bricks in the front but just in case, the deck is coming down a week from now. I have reclaimed my house! I was extrememly relieved to hear that other neighbors were having a problem as well. I still don't like it but it was nice to know we weren't the only ones running a Holiday Inn for Mice.

I am also thankful for friends that make me laugh. I got to spend some time with some friends that I don't get to see nearly as often as I would like and the irony is that we only live a few houses away. My stomach still hurts from laughing so hard. I truly am blessed to know such big-hearted, down to earth, fun to be with women who let me barge in on them for a night. Somehow I ended up feeling like the fundraiser that I spoke of in earlier posts was a night that they all looked forward to which relieved a lot of guilt I felt about that and then I am pretty sure I agreed to host the neighborhood cookie exchange. I'm not a very neighborly neighbor. I will cook a meal for anyone in need and wave and chat as neighbors go by but I stay in my house a lot or am not home at all so I don't know all that many very well. Which is odd because my neighbors have helped me through some really rough times. I think of hosting the cookie exchange as the same as a runner training for a marathon. They go for practice runs to get ready for the big run. Since I am hosting Christmas Day and there is a lot of pressure (put on by myself) to make sure it becomes a special memory, the cookie exchange will be practice for hosting a large party. It also gives me some motivation to get stuff done around here.

I think the neighbor relationship is a tough one to navigate through of all the relationships. You live in close proximity so you know a lot of each other's business. It's very hard to set clear boundaries and a lot of times they become big, gray muddied lines. Kid issues, lawn issues, pet issues, adult issues, sports issues, school issues...all the issues rolled up into one. I have actually had to switch sleeping from a night shirt to sweats because my house has a lot of window and neighbors can see right into my house and it might make sense to buy blinds but the people before us put in really expensive shades that don't come down (and Leo is not really a "change the look" kind of guy). Often times they see the worst of you (screaming for your kids to come inside for the 10th time or what the lawn looks like after weeks of neglecting it). I live on a corner house and I always feel bad that we aren't better at shoveling in the winter. I once made a joke that we were going to put up a sign on the sidewalk that said, "Closed for the Season." They have also seen the best of you (laughing until your stomach hurts, at the park with your kids or at neighborhood or school events) and in times of need they rally together to build you back up. We are not Wisteria Lane but with all the drama that goes on in this community, we are pretty darn close and who better to chat about that then your neighbors who are going through the same things or are in the middle of all the drama as well?

Let's face it, we've grown up with our families, we choose our friends but we have no choice of who we live by or who moves in next to us. I feel very thankful that I get along with all my neighbors which makes me think...I hope we aren't the neighbors that everyone is wishing would move.