Incognito

There are several reasons why I love my neighborhood. For one, my 84-year-old neighbor, Bill, shares all his newspapers with me, which he hand-tosses onto my porch when he’s finished with them. Love that! I also enjoy that most of my neighbors with pets will stop by our porch, just to let Ava love up on their little cuties. She loves that! Furthermore, I found it fully heartening that most porches at Halloween sported hand-carved pumpkins with a variety of faces on them. Anyone that takes the time to carve and display pumpkins gets an A in my book, as you well know!

But perhaps my very favorite thing about the neighborhood is this: one can leave a large, fully-stocked purse in a driveway in full view for any number of minutes, and thank the lucky stars NO ONE STEALS IT!

Yes, this frightening event occurred yesterday when Ava and I left for a quick trip to CVS. Apparently while strapping her into the car seat, I unerringly left my purse in the driveway. We made it all the way to the CVS parking lot before I realized I had no purse, at which point I panicked and slammed the car in reverse. Ava was quite impressed with my NASCAR-like driving skills, and she kept up a running commentary all the way home. Mommy, you lost your purse. We’re going to find your purse! This is fun! Are you mad you lost your purse? Move it, lady! (This in direct mimic of a similar comment I made, as you can imagine.)

Thus, my love of my neighborhood swelled when I returned to find my purse still safely sitting in the driveway, exactly where I left it. Ah, the relief! Of course, Erik credits its wellbeing to the fact that it was a leopard-print purse, and according to him, No one stole it because no one could see it! It was incognito!

Here is Ava posing with the now-infamous purse: