Love Thy Neighbor

Hugh and I have had some interesting neighbors. I like to refer to our neighbor craziness as “Adventures in Neighbors”. Before I met Hugh, he insists that the neighbor to the left of our house was a prostitute. Apparently she didn’t work and there was always a different car in the driveway everyday.

When I moved in with Hugh we had really quiet neighbors. A little odd, didn’t talk to anyone, but at least they were quiet. =)

Then….the worst neighbors in the history of neighbors moved in. It was an adult woman and several high school age children. The first night they were there, they had at least 12 cars there and they had a HUGE party. There was loud thumping music and loud people until 3 in the morning. This “party” pretty much continued from every Thursday through Sunday. They lived in the house for almost a year and the cops would show up at night a minimum of twice a week. Not just one police car, they would send two because of the number of people and the clientele. I started noticing that the “kids” were spending most of their days sitting on the front porch smoking weed. In the open!! I was greeted several times by kids that I knew from school over there partying and doing drugs. They sold drugs out of the house and they actually held “church services” on Sundays. One of the guys drove a Cadillac with a chrome “J. Christ” edition emblem on it. Their church had a website where you could donate online and receive healing. SERIOUSLY!?!?! When they did finally move out, I think the entire neighborhood celebrated.

Good Neighbors J

Across the street from our house lives a great family, Charlie and Stephanie. They have three young kids that LOVE our dogs and their son thinks of Hugh as a playmate. We love them to death, and when it comes time for us to move we’d like to take them with us. We have a great relationship with them and we always have a good time hanging out with them.

Yesterday: I was at home cutting up onion for our spaghetti sauce. I decided to try a new cutting technique that I saw on Food Network. Well, my hand slipped off the onion and my index finger jammed itself into the knife. I knew it was cut, since blood started pouring out of it, but I wouldn’t look at it. I’m always the one that everyone comes to when they’re hurt. Broken bones, blood, guts….it doesn’t bother me at all. Now, when I’m the one hurt it’s a different story. I couldn’t look at it. All I saw was blood coming through the paper towel and I just stood there. I was by myself, bleeding, and Hugh wouldn’t be home for an hour. So, I did what I thought was the smartest thing I could do. I walked across the street and used my elbow to ring the doorbell over at Stephanie’s. She opened the door and was on her phone. This is what she said:

Stephanie (to her phone call): “I have to go, I’ve got a neighbor emergency.”

Stephanie (to me): “Did you cut yourself?”

Me: “uh-huh.”

Stephanie: “You don’t want to look at it?”

Me: “Uh-uh.”

Stephanie: “Come on it, I’ll take care of it.”

How awesome is that? She doctored up my finger while her 3 year old told me I was good and gave me a Santa sticker. Yes, I’m 30 years old. Yes, the sticker made me feel better.

I love our neighbors.

...and my finger hurts.