I went to the movies by myself last Saturday night. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy that. When you think about it, why is movie-watching considered a group activity anyway? You don’t talk. In fact, the worst people to go to movies with are those who keep yapping at you while you’re trying to watch the movie. So you’re going to the movies with someone you hope doesn’t actually talk to you. I say, better (and cheaper!) to go alone. I didn’t have to share my armrest or my Junior Mints and I laughed like an idiot whenever I felt like it. And there was no one to disagree with how much I enjoyed the movie (Mamma Mia) or point out its flaws (if you didn’t like it, I don’t wanna hear about it. That’s why I didn’t invite you to go with me.) In a period of my life when I can’t even go to the bathroom alone, going by myself to a movie is a blessed, blessed thing.
Creepy Clean
If I had to guess, I’d say 70% of homes in Littleton and surrounding areas are in homeowners’ associations. It makes sense — here HOA dues are about $30-40 a month, as opposed to LA where I’ve heard dues run $200-300 and up. And in a place where you can only swim 4 months a year, it certainly makes more sense to have neighborhood pools than to have one of your own. The HOA here maintains parks and hiking trails and a gym and tennis courts and swimming pools. No one leaves trash cans in their yards or cars up on blocks. And it’s freaking me out.
Don’t get me wrong — most of the time it’s a nice change from cleaning up trash people dumped in our alley in LA (including the time someone emptied their RV waste tank in front of our driveway and even the HazMat guy who came to clean it up gagged). And I appreciate going to the park and not worrying about people shooting up in the bathroom when I have to take Timothy in there. So I recognize it is pure cussedness (there’s a cowboy word for you) that would cause me to complain. But every once in a while I miss people like our old landlord who installed an elephant fountain in the courtyard of our apartment in West LA for Iranian New Year. It was hideous and I hated it, but sometimes I miss it anyway. And the lady who landscaped her front yard with a wild array of flowers and cactii and plantings in the middle of her yard in the shape of a nude woman. I even occasionally miss the guy at the end of our block on Louise who collected broken TVs in the yard.
This neighborhood is beautiful. We’re close to the foothills. We saw a buck (that’s a male deer, for you cityfolk) standing by our mailbox on Thursday. Cute little bunnies run through our yard. The neighbors are friendly and the streets are clean. I’m sure the HOAs result in higher housing prices and lower crime rates. But sometimes I miss the mess.
