In my perfect neighborhood I live in a little house in the middle of the block, down the street from the library and the post office and the grocery store and the bus stop that went right to my job. There would be a little coffee shop at the end of the street that would know exactly how I like my hot chocolate, and two blocks later there would be an artsy little one-screen theater that would let you take said hot chocolate into the movie with you.
There wouldn’t be much car traffic on my street. I would live in a teeny little blue and green house with a little back yard. I’m not too into gardening but I would want to have a tree in the front and maybe some herbs in pots in the back. I wouldn’t have a fence, and there would be no grass for me to mow. I’d have big windows and bamboo flooring with big pretty rugs everywhere. In between all the built-in bookshelves I would have friends’ paintings and bits of stained glass and pictures of all my friends and family. I’d have a little office that would maybe also be the guest room and the movie room and the knitting room. I’d tell the cats they couldn’t go in there but probably they would anyway.
All that’s very nice and cute and everything, but the best part about my neighborhood wouldn’t be my house, it would be the houses all around me, because they would be full of the people I love. My mom and sister would live at the end of the streets and we would have dinner together every week, and maybe my mom would help me with my herb garden and in choosing a tree to put in the front yard. The ABL would be next door and Anna would make all the art to cover my walls. In fact I would defer to her for all my decorating decisions and I would make her come to IKEA with me and fan me gently when I got tired from too much light-colored wood. Kat and Abi would be there…this neighborhood, it’s huge, but not so big that you can get lost if you don’t happen to have the best sense of direction ever…and we would go dancing and dress up in pretty costumes.
Amy and the Key Girls would live there and somehow there would be a Sir Pizza just a couple of blocks away and we would go there with their kids so they could be brought up in the grand old tradition of Key Girls everywhere. Also, magically, the old Vernon’s Drugstore would be in that neighborhood with the old-fashioned milkshake machines and we could go there and have milkshakes and fries with season salt any time we wanted. We would be near a beach and we would make jewelry under the chickees
Sundry and Peachyand Mrs. Roboto would be on that street and we could finally have Book Club at my house because I would have a living room big enough to fit more than two people. I would show up at Sundry’s any time of day or night with a battered copy of Pirates of the Caribbean in my hand and whisper “Just once more! One more time! Please!” and she’d go “I thought you’d never get here!” and we’d watch it and scream some more. Mo and Pineapple Girl and Mollyand every single member of MATH+1 would be there and we would all go to Lush together and sing karaoke and we’d also balance the federal budget and have Supper Club nights and talk and laugh the whole night long.
Everyone in this neighborhood is in and out of each others’ houses all day long, and we lend and borrow things like circular saws and food processors and paintbrushes and camping gear and everything. Every summer we have a gigantic block party that goes on all weekend and sometimes results in some surprising liaisons in the morning but always has great food and music and croquet and balloons and Chinese lanterns in the trees. People who don’t happen to live in this neighborhood love to come visit it and they always get in the car for the airport with a little wistful sigh and they think seriously about moving to where we are and occasionally they do and everyone else who lives there is so glad to have them nearby and we have another big party to welcome the new people even though the block party was just a couple of weeks ago but fortunately we still have some balloons and Chinese lanterns so we just go for it. Occasionally some of us will take a trip somewhere else and while we love going on vacation together we’re always happy to come home.
Oh, who am I kidding. I’m not describing my perfect fantasy neighborhood over here…I’m describing heaven.