New Neighbors

Last week I met one of our new neighbors. A couple moved in, but I’ve yet to meet the woman, let alone even see her. The most we’ve seen is her car, but on one of the only above 60 degree days we had last week, I took Wookie for a walk and the guy next door (C) was in his garage. He came out to introduce himself and even invited me in to see their place which was cool.

I was surprised by how dark it was in there compared to our place. I think the combination of dark wood floors, the absence of high windows, and them keeping the blinds closed contributed to the stark difference. I much prefer all the natural sunlight we get in our unit. Plus the echo in their place was terrible with all the hard floors and no throw rugs. C assured me they are on the list and I’m hoping they get some soon because even though their TV is mounted above the fireplace (which is not a shared wall), sometimes we can still hear it! I mentioned that in passing to him when we met and he said to let him know if it’s ever too loud. I’m not so petty to march over there every time, though, so long as it’s not for hours on end and/or late at night I’m not planning on saying anything. So far it’s only happened twice more since we met. I’m guessing once they get rugs it might dampen the noise some. He’s a loud talker so you’d think they would want to eliminate that echo ASAP.

He also likes to talk in general so I learned a lot about him and his girlfriend – they moved from the city, he works from home in I.T. sales, and she works in Arlington Heights. They have three cats and a small saltwater fish tank in the dining room. Oh, and he has a motorcycle which he likes to ride daily which kinda sucks because I find the noise pretty jarring.

One of these days we might be able to afford a free-standing house somewhere, preferably with lots of land. I’m only a people person when they aren’t making noise or being annoying, so rarely, ha ha. Although on the plus side at least he’s nice and they put their garbage cans away promptly after pickup.

Easter

Joe invited the kids over for Easter. We didn’t hear back from his son at all, but his daughter replied Saturday morning that she and her boyfriend would be coming (although at the time we didn’t know that meant just them since she wrote “we’ll be there” and they often drive up with E). Of course, we had just finished our Costco trip an hour before her text so we didn’t have a rotisserie chicken (she doesn’t care for ham). I ended up pulling out a chicken breast from the freezer when we got home, and we stopped at Aldi for potatoes. I also picked up some hyacinth since they were only $4. I forgot how overwhelmingly fragrant they are, so we’ll see how long they last in the house before I grow tired of them.

I didn’t put together Easter baskets for the kids this year which worked out since E didn’t show and K has been working on getting in shape and has eliminated all junk food from her home. I did throw one together for Wookie, and taught her a new game called “find it” which surprisingly she learned quickly. I put treats in the bunny eggs and would have her sniff one, then tell her to stay while I hid it in another room. Then I’d come back to where I left her and say “find it” and she’d run around the house looking for the bunny egg. It was so cute watching her excitedly trying to locate her treats. We played the new game a few times throughout the day since she loved it so much. She loves smelling everything so the game suits her well. I think we’ll play it often.

K and ES arrived just before 4 and we ate shortly thereafter, then just chatted and played with Wookie the rest of the evening. We also had my once a year homemade carrot cake for dessert. As much as I love it, I really hate how long it takes to make so I might cheat next year and buy a boxed cake and just make the frosting from scratch. If it ends up being noticeably worse I’ll go back to the homemade cake the following year. K & ES left around 9 pm which is the time Joe and I typically go upstairs anyway, so it should have been perfect but I had trouble falling asleep. It takes me awhile to wind down after socializing.

Even though I slept until 8 am today I’m still feeling really tired and kinda grumpy. I made the mistake of going to Savers in this mood (I haven’t been there recently). I tried on a few things but nothing spoke to me, and the crowded nature of the store was getting under my skin. I managed to get my cleaning done and now I’m lying in bed listening to podcasts. I call this my post-socializing hangover.