twilight.

as in the zone. not the teeny bopper vampire/werewolf movie. as in the neighborhood where i currently reside....

need proof?

1a. move in day: random woman with personalized plates driving by, turning the corner and slowing down to an almost dead stop, craning her head out the window, showing her missing teeth... 'congraaaaaaadulaaaaaaaations on yo' neeeeew houuuuuse' she smiled at us as we unloaded. turns out she's not a neighbor, cause i haven't seen her car since. yikes!

1b. two neighbors come over to meet aly on move in day and specifically ask if she was kaci, wanting to congratulate her (me) on her purchase note: i've not met these neighbors before. the neighbors are, obviously, nice and looking out for each other- but how does my name get around in a one week period to people i don't know?

1c. Last week, week three in the house, a very frail looking, skinny middle aged man walks up to me as i'm unloading the car from the day. as i walk up the sidewalk with a friend, he asks: 'are one of you kaci?' i reply, 'yes, i am!' and he says, 'like, for real, the REAL kaci? are you sure?'

2. this sign resides a few blocks over, and i see it every time i walk the dogs to lowry:

what is a theme camp? why does it need a reservation?

3. while on the subject of signs, i saw a sign attached to a light post the other day, posting a reward for 'lost birds'. who looses birds, who posts signs for them, and how would one bring them back for said reward?

4. neighbor kacey, who works at 'the league' (aka denver dumb friends league) talks to me about kitties and threatens- i mean, offers- to bring hers over all the time to meet my dogs. she also invites herself into my house, literally, and then leaves her waterbottle there. when i ask if she forgot it and hand it to her, she replies, 'oh, that's mine? i thought that was yours, but knew i had one like it!'.

5. the corner liquor store one block up is called 'jambo liquor'. jambo means hello in swahili. it's next to a tattoo parlor named 'that scary place', a marijuana dispensary, and La Bota, a mexican restaurant with crazy happy hours, dancing and pool. and there's a DQ next to the 7-10 (not 7-11) mart across the street.

6. every morning a large man in slippers takes his trash out into our conjoining alley and his dog gets out. his dog, a black mutt of a thing, is named 'diamond'. i know this cause he yells his name a lot.

7. also in the alley lives my new favorite sign:

8. added from twinner: the marbles (and glass, and styrofoam, and mini christmas tree) that i've found in all the dirt i've dug up in the flower beds.

9. the fake person sitting under an umbrella on my neighbor's yard. is that supposed to scare someone off?

10. the very sickly skinny young man i saw three times in 20 minutes: first time he was traveling shirtless, by foot, south on spruce; ten minutes later he was traveling north, with shirt on, up spruce; ten more minutes later he was exiting the liquor store a few blocks southwest. haven't seen him since.

11. there are more reasons to love my twilight zone neighborhood, but i'm too busy checking for attack snakes to write more....