A Homeowner!

Brittany called me the other morning and said, “There are so many wonderful people in the world!”

She had been shopping at Lowes (the home improvement center) because she bought a house. She had been running into the same woman over and over as she went up and down the aisles and told her bits and pieces about her new house every time she went by. At the check out counter the woman said she had a bunch of hanging plants she didn’t want anymore and offered them to Brittany. Hence the wonderful people phone call.

I’m having some trouble reconciling my image of a daughter who loved shopping for shoes and clothes and had never done a lick of yard work in her life with this young woman who can’t decide if she wants it to rain so she can paint the bathroom or be sunny so she can mow the lawn!

It’s like she became domestic overnight. Suddenly she’s excited to buy a shower curtain and toilet roll holders. And she told me she met one of her neighbors while she was out sweeping the front porch!

The move itself was not without problems though. She was nervous before the closing that something would go wrong at the last minute. And sure enough the day before, her realtor called and said they couldn’t get a hold of anyone in the neighborhood homeowner’s association to see if the former owner was paid up with his dues, so they might have to push the closing date back.

Brittany said she looked up a member of the homeowner’s board on Facebook, friended her, and then messaged her asking for the president’s number. She called the president, who looked up the information, said the man was paid up and Brittany asked him to fax the information to the lawyer. Then she called me to sigh, “Do I have to do everything myself?”

Welcome to MY world!

Soon after moving in she came home with a plant only to find out it was poisonous to dogs (of which she has two). So she put it on top of the fridge planning to take it into work for her desk the next day. As luck would have it a stalk fell off overnight and clearly at least one of the dogs had eaten most of it. Both seemed well, so she took them to “doggy daycare” near her office for the day so someone could keep an eye on them for any reaction. She called me from the car to tell me about that fiasco too. (And for me to say hi to Charlie and Ava who were in the back seat. The dog kids.)

But most of her phone calls lately have been happy and enthusiastic. Like the one about the Lowes lady. As she hung up from that one she said, “Call and tell me about the wonderful people YOU meet today, ok?”