Anyhow, so we saw the first place on the corner of Downer and Capitol in Shorewood. It was nice. The current renter had dogs and I was like: We can have dogs???? Plus, it was Shorewood, which meant our car insurance immediately would go down. This was important to me at the time. I’m all about the lower rates. The second place was on the corner of Downer and Summit (you know, past St. Mary’s but before The Chancery), the duplex faced the point of the triangular block and through the front windows you could see that the family room was painted red. Red? I’d always wondered about that color choice. Anyhow, the landlord didn’t have a key and the tenants weren’t home. We could wait or we could make a quick decision and take the first place.

We took the place in Shorewood.

When I turned in our application and our deposit the landlord shook my hand and said congratulations. I was never sure what he was congratulating me on: My upcoming graduation from college? Being accepted to live in one of his properties? Choosing a fork in the road of life?

Phoebe trying to fit into the cat bed, this photo still cracks me up.

I often wonder how our lives would be different if we would have chose differently. For one, we never would have had a dog. Phoebe joined our family a few months after moving in. I wonder if we would have become lifelong east siders? Would Maisy be part of our family now? Would I still be riding my bike up and down Lake Drive? Where would our life have taken us if we would have moved into that home with the red family room?

Why would someone go through so many hoops to make sure they weren’t wrongly accused of something? 

If someone is wrong about me, I’ll go to the ends of the Earth to prove to them that they are.

Obviously. #duh #welcometomyblog

Over the years his family and my family have grown very close, and to be honest, I couldn’t have asked for a better neighbor. He also ADORES Dogzilla (Josie) and every time that dog would do something bad during that first year of puppy hood (a phase I thought would NEVER end) we’d warn her that she’d have to go live with her Uncle D (our next door neighbor) if this kept up. Of course, going to live with him would probably be a lot like sending your kid to live with their grandparents: Nothing but ice cream, cookies, popcorn and staying up late — of course you’d have to substitute that to laying on the couch, peanut butter filled Kongs, dog treats and more dog treats.

With everything that’s been going on with my nosy neighbor “P” let’s just say that he’s put himself at the very TOP of the list of suspects for who could have sent that anonymous letter. Oh gosh, after all that went down over the last few days I’d really hate to “wrongly accuse” him [insert major amounts of sarcasm] — but let’s see …. oh yes, I’ve got this email where he says he has free speech when he was stirring up a political debate on the subdivision Yahoo! group. That must mean that I’ve also got freedom of speech too, right???

Yes. I. do.

So there. Anonymous letter received. I believe Paul sent it. It might as well have said: Hey Kim, Welcome to the f’ing neighborhood where I will be friendly to your face but once I get behind my computer I’m going to bully and harass the living daylights out of you!

Happy Running!

Music is Get Up! by The Alice Project

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