It is such a beautiful morning, there is time for me to have a nice cup of coffee and review the plans for my day. You see, I am an almost middle aged DivorcΓ©e who is so well taken care of by her ex-Husband that she has an incredible amount of free time. Today is one of those weekend days when the girls are with their Dad.
The wonderful thing about making plans? The whole action is incredibly fluid. As I gaze out my back window, (checking to see if it needs mowing,) and notice my neighbor, on her on her hands and knees with a weeding spade, fluidity presents itself. Today is the day I shall be neighborly and welcome her.
"Ok, Snooks, lets go outside." He skitters around the corner and almost crashes into the wall. "Now, slow down you knucklehead."
"Rowr mrrrr, rowr rowr," (cat talk for, 'hurry up and open the door.') Majestically, he goes out the door then regally strides to the top of the steps to survey his kingdom. Sitting on the grass looking out over the lawn he then turns his head to me and politely thanks me with a nice little, "mrowr."
Casually picking at some stray fallen blossoms from my planter I say to her, "Hello. You are working hard today."
"Oh, yes, well this yard is a disaster." her hand brushes her hair back from her eyes.
"Oh I know the last people that lived there were one step above trailer trash." I laugh lightly, "You have made a great deal of progress though in what? One month?"
Time to introduce myself, "My name is Deidre, by the way." as I walk down the steps and towards the fence.
"Oh, uh Nadine." she removes her glove, "uh, I'd shake your hand uh," and wipes her hand on her jeans.
"We don't need to be so formal Nadine. Nice to meet you."
"Oh, good." her toe brushes over the tops of the weeds, "What is this stuff anyway? The whole yard is infested with it." she looks and refers encompassingly to her yard with a gesture.
"We call it, 'creeping Jenny,' " I laugh lighty, "I have some over here myself, the best you can do is try to establish a measure of control over it."
"I pulled on one just awhile ago, right here," her foot taps at the fence, "and it's root was over 2 feet long!" Referring to her shovel which was leaning against her side of my fence she continued, "I had to encroach over your fence to chop the root off."
"Yes, well, that's,'Jenny.' She gets around."
" ' ... gets around.' I'll say!" she said. "Definitely."
"You are doing this all alone. Where is,?"
"Pardon?" she is affronted.
"Well," I gesture towards her work, "I'd apologize but it does seem to me to be a valid question. Oh well, I guess it's none of my ..."
"No, no," she reaches to my arm to keep me from turning away my gaze, "it is a valid point."
"Un unh."
"He has, 'issues,' he says."
I laugh aloud, " ... issues? Oh, that's good."
"Yeah I know, it is amazing that he can't multi task his issues into helping me a little bit. Oh well."
I walk to the gate that separates our yards, "You need to take a break dear. Do you have some time for coffee?"
"Well, uh," she looks around the yard.
"Believe me Nadine, 'Jenny,' will continue to creep. We'll take a break. We can then handle 'Jenny,' together." I open the gate.
" ... sounds like a good idea." She laughs and walks through the gate.
"You're not allergic to cats are you?" we walk up the deck steps side by side.
"Oh no, not at all."
"Well, the girls are at Daddies for the weekend and it is just us, and the cats of course." I open the door for her, "Welcome to my castle."
"Oh my," her eyes take in the modern furnishings of my kitchen, "this is nice." then she cranes her head to the side attempting to peek into the sitting room.
"Well if Harold had known that I was going to get the house in the settlement, he most likely would've bought a house down in "shanty-town."
" 'Shanty-town?' "
"Oh I forgot you're not from around here, my Dad used to call the poor side of town that." Walking over to the coffee pot I attempt to brush away my age, "I shouldn't date myself I guess."
"Oh," at the table she continues, "... what, you're like 30?"
"Goodness!" I shut off the water and walk over to the coffee maker, "Well, that is a good enough place to stop counting anyway." I lightly laugh dismissing this part of the conversation, "I have flavored coffees here, French Vanilla, Hazelnut, Mocha, uh,"
"I love hazelnut."
"Ok, Hazelnut it is then," after settling the basket under the top of the coffee maker I turn and gesture towards the next room, "lets go sit in the sitting room." I touch her elbow, "Much nicer." and we walk in together.
"Wow," she said, "this is a female paradise you have here."
"Well, as I said my Ex takes good care of me." I refer her to the couch which abuts my love seat. "Let me get a sheet." After clicking the remote to my CD player, I walk to my linen closet.
The singer introduces his song, 'well, if it sounds country, it's because that is what it is, a country song,' and then the smooth country beat begins.
Listening to the smooth sounds she says, "Who's that?"
"Oh, he's the one who wrote it. Uh, Kris," I unfold the sheet.
"I've only heard that one girl singing it," she takes the sheet from me and places it on the love seat next to me.
" ... right Janis. Uh," I sit with a bit of hesitance but offer her the spot she claims, "Here I am dating myself again, my dad was an ex hippie, I like his music much better than what passes for music now."
"Well, that is good, I mean it is so smooth, good music is always good." she turns and smiles at me, "There is nothing wrong with old."
"Well I'm glad you think that way Dear. The coffee is ready," I stand.
"Let me." she stands and takes my arm, "Are the cups in that cabinet above the coffee maker?" interlacing it with hers.
"Well, yes they are."
"Well it's the least I can do, anyway I was a waitress before I met my uh, whatever he is."
"Oh," we walk into the kitchen, "you two aren't married?"
"Un unh," she pours up two cups of coffee, "he says what we have is just as good."
"Yeah," I laugh, "for him." and take the cup from her, "I apologize, I don't need to agg,"
"Oh it's ok, don't worry. I got my eye on this situation and I can handle it if I have to."
"Yes dear," I nod my head, "I do believe you might just have some control over that."
"Oh yes, I was going to ask, would you like creamer also?" I open the refrigerator door. "I have the standard creamers, (I really like my coffee,) or this." and show the bottle of Irish Creme whiskey.
"Wow!" she interrupts, "Yes, I would like that much better." and pours out some of her coffee into the sink. She adds quite a bit of splash to her coffee, (actually making it just a shade under white,) "I love that stuff." and laughs lightly.