first night

So yesterday while I was moving stuff in, I sat in the chair in the front room and read the newspapers. I heard something so quickly turned to look into the house, and there was a dog sneaking in the back door.

The neighborwoman had told me she has two dogs and that they can sneak into my backyard (which actually is great security for me without any of the responsibility!), but i was pretty impressed at Tikun's nerve to sneak clear into my house through four rooms. I called her name and she turned and scooted out of the house and waited right by the back door for me to officially introduce myself.

What a sweet dog! She wanted to introduce me to the neighborhood but didn't want to be *too* pushy.

NW (neighborwoman) let's the neighborhood kids take Ollie and Tikun out for walks and the dogs are SO good. She's really good with the kids - a few were playing with PlayDough on her stoop last evening while others were walking her dogs. One of the kids asked Ahmed if we needed help (I'm not sure why Ahmed said no - haha).

The neighborhood is definitely checking me out to see how I am, watching to see what kind of neighbor I will be. A man and woman were fixing his car right in front of my house yesterday when we were moving in; music was pumping when we pulled up, but soon they turned it off (and offered to help with the heavy stuff). I really liked that *she* is the mechanic, and I know who to befriend for sure.

Last night I slept pretty well. But, I had forgotten to scrub down the window sills upstairs, and I have a hard time sleeping near dirt (when I'm not camping of course). A few people rolled through with music blaring but not many. This morning I realized that I can hear the freeway from my bedroom. It's not loud, just gray noise. NW and I also can hear each other very well (which I felt a little sorry for as I tried to hobble down my stairs), so that will be interesting to work itself out.

Today I must buy curtains, shower rod, and plastic containers for food - because there are mice here. Thank GOODNESS it's them instead of Tami's favorite crawfish-resembling pest. Mice I can definitely handle, and Landlord will set traps and take care of them while I'm gone.

I'm really stiff and sore from all the cleaning and moving yesterday - my knuckles all ache from grabbing heavy things. But, I'm off to the old place to move out the last of the stuff, clear the walls, and clean; then to work for a few hours; then on a KMart spending spree. Actually I don't need much stuff - just some small things. This will be one of my cheapest moves.