Neighbors Be Warned!

My friend Alecia and I go way back. And by way back, I mean far enough back that we wrote each other notes in school. Despite going to different schools, which meant whenever we hung out (every weekend) we'd deliver each other a package of notes. Oh, y'all, we were so awesome.

Like all great friendships, ours started out with mutual dislike. Alecia and her mom joined the Guide Dog 4-H club that I had recently joined and we were most assuredly not friends. But then my mom, or her mom, I can't remember, asked my mom or her mom to give one of us a ride to a meeting. This was met with grumbling on both of our parts, but ultimately the outcome was a friend I've had for more than half of my life. She is hilarious and smart and fun to hang out with.

Back in the day, we thought we were way cool and we would sneak out at night when she would spend the night. We'd wander the mean streets of unincorporated Littleton (kidding about the mean streets, my parent's neighborhood couldn't even be called the unfriendly streets.) Every now and then, we'd fancy ourselves to be real hoodlums, and we'd get up to mischief. But we were too nice to TP anyone or key cars because that could cause lasting damage or take too much time to clean up! We were so bad. Anyway, I dated this guy who lived close to my parents house for a brief time, and something about the breakup made us desire retribution.

We took to the streets in the nighttime armed with crushed Cheerios to pour on his parent's lawn and aromatherapy oil to pour on their car! Deviants, we were. Neither of us can remember what was up with the crushed Cheerios, but I guess we thought it would be a nuisance. And the aromatherapy oil... wouldn't it just be a hoot for them to come out in the morning and the car handles be all oily and strong-smelling?! Oh, the memories.

I got to thinking about this today because Alecia and I were talking about Brian and my new neighbors to the bottom of us being a little uppity and asking us to stop "stomping and banging" when we'd been watching T.V. for the past 1.5 hours and watching our 22 pound toddler walk around. He isn't a very effective stomper, what with his 22 pounds. Anyway, Alecia (jokingly, emphasis on that) offered to come over and handle our problem with the neighbor, in an amusing and non-violent way. I told her we should just grab up some aromatherapy oils and oil her car, although her lack of grass that could be Cheerio'd was regretable. Alecia thought maybe aromatherapy oil was too harsh and suggested stress relief oil. I suggested Cheerios in her front door mat! And then I cracked up laughing and the laughter really helped me feel better about a not-so-good neighbor situation, which in reality, does really suck. We've got to live above this whiny lady for some time to come. Sigh.

Ah, friends. What would we do without them?! Who else will help you pour breakfast cereal in someone else's yard and giggle with you about how unpleasant greasy door handles will be? Thanks for approximately 17 years of friendship, Alecia. Not counting a brief hiatus. You rock!