Yesterday afternoon I did some snooping (it pays to have a realtor husband) and on spec I took CootieGirl out for a drive to see if I could find Finslippy and her husband, Pretty Rambo, at their new house. I got a bit lost in the neighborhood because I turned off the main road too early, but finally found the house I thought was hers. The folks across the street were out on their front porch enjoying the fine weather, so I rolled down my window and asked if folks had just moved in across the street.
“Yep,” one man replied, “they just left out about 10 minutes ago – you just missed them.”
“Okay, thanks!” Figuring they went out for dinner, we drove back home and chilled for a couple hours. Then I popped CootieGirl back in the car and we drove over again. Less than 15 minutes later we knocked on the door (we didn’t want to ring the bell in case Henry was sleeping). After a few moments a man came to the door.
“Hi,” I began, “you don’t know me, but I’m Jaynee from Cootiehog…” Just then, Alice of Finslippy fame came around the corner and I reintroduced myself, handing over the bottle of wine I had brought. I explained that I’m really not a stalker, and Alice said something like, “Hey, you brought wine – you can stalk anytime you like.”
They invited us in and CootieGirl gave Henry her “welcome to the neighborhood” presents – some gummi Lifesavers and a single-size package of Pringles chips. CootieGirl and I visited with them for about 45 minutes – it was obvious they had had a long day moving from BNYC to NoNJ, but it was a pleasure to meet them nonetheless. With any luck we can get them over to our house for dinner sometime soon. Turns out they had looked at a couple houses in my neighborhood but lost out on them in bidding wars.
Anyway, around 9 p.m. CootieGirl began playing with my keys and promptly hit the big red alarm button on my key fob, causing my car to begin screeching loudly into the night. Then I struggled for a good 15-20 seconds to hit the right button to turn it off. Once I finally managed to turn it off I groaned, “Oh great – now your neighbors hate you and it’s all my fault!”
With our mission accomplished (giving them a “welcome to the neighborhood” bottle of wine, not pissing off their neighbors) we left them to settle in for their first night in their new home. Welcome to Jersey!
