Hey It’s Cold Outside

The sun in shining, there’s a slight dusting of snow on the trees—it’s breathtakingly beautiful here in Monument today—even if it is only 3 degrees outside! And it’s Friday, which means that it’s a play day for me. I took the boys to school, stopped at the grocery store, picked up a cinnamon dolce latte for me and a cappuccino for Doug, and now I am a homemaker (or it is housewife? or stay-at-home mom?), whatever you want to call it, it is the best feeling there could be.

Doug and I have a date tonight and I have a “date” today with my next door neighbor. She and her husband are two of the younger people in the gated community we live in. I think she was happy when we moved in since we at least appeared to be closer to their age. I spent the next two months working almost around the clock, so I was surely a disappointment as a new neighbor, but with my new-found freedom, it’s a different story entirely.

We have lots of plans, or plans to make plans anyway. Maybe take cooking lessons in Denver, a women’s lecture series, play tennis in the summer . . . Next Saturday night she and her husband and Doug and I are going to go to dinner, a movie at a funky old movie house in downtown Colorado Springs and maybe listen to music at Jack Quinn. Her husband likes microbreweries, and hiking. I don’t think he and Doug will have any trouble finding something to talk about. That is, of course, if they can get a word in edgewise between she and I, who talk almost non-stop whenever we’re together or on the phone.

I’ve heard about people who made friends with their neighbors, not just acquaintances, but friends. I’ve rarely experienced the true-friend part with a neighbor per se, I have more so with women I met through the MOMS Club or school, although I’ve always wanted to. You know, the thing you used to see on tv, where the two women hung out, had coffee, played tennis or went out to lunch during the day. Yep, having a neighbor to become friends with, one of those other things I love about living here.