Anyhow, so we saw the first place on the corner of Downer and Capitol in Shorewood. It was nice. The current renter had dogs and I was like: We can have dogs???? Plus, it was Shorewood, which meant our car insurance immediately would go down. This was important to me at the time. I’m all about the lower rates. The second place was on the corner of Downer and Summit (you know, past St. Mary’s but before The Chancery), the duplex faced the point of the triangular block and through the front windows you could see that the family room was painted red. Red? I’d always wondered about that color choice. Anyhow, the landlord didn’t have a key and the tenants weren’t home. We could wait or we could make a quick decision and take the first place.

We took the place in Shorewood.

When I turned in our application and our deposit the landlord shook my hand and said congratulations. I was never sure what he was congratulating me on: My upcoming graduation from college? Being accepted to live in one of his properties? Choosing a fork in the road of life?

Phoebe trying to fit into the cat bed, this photo still cracks me up.

I often wonder how our lives would be different if we would have chose differently. For one, we never would have had a dog. Phoebe joined our family a few months after moving in. I wonder if we would have become lifelong east siders? Would Maisy be part of our family now? Would I still be riding my bike up and down Lake Drive? Where would our life have taken us if we would have moved into that home with the red family room?

One of the best things about my job is that we laugh a lot here. There’s nothing like starting off the day with a giant fake rubber rat hidden on someone’s chair, desk, or office and then sitting, silent, trying super hard not to giggle while you wait for the unsuspecting co-worker to stumble upon it and then scream like a little girl. Oh yes, this is what I come for work for.

Today I brought to work a life-like plastic tarantula. It’s really a piece of candy, but no one at my house wants to screw off the spider head to suck down candy juice through the neck of the spider while squeezing the spider body. Totally. Gross.

First victim was my brother. I hid it on his desk under some papers. He didn’t even flinch. I guess the rubber rat visited him a few too many times.

Second victim was in the cubicle next to me, I set it the tarantula on the floor about 4′ behind his chair. He didn’t scream, but he said it startled him. (FYI, he did scream like a little girl when the rat showed up in his cubicle.)

Third victim was my dad. I set it in his office, kinda under a credenza so that it was just peeking out. He gave a fake scream and said in a super high girly voice, “Eek. A spider.”

Final victim is my mom. She wasn’t in to work yet, but my dad had unlocked her office door and it was ajar, so I put the spider right on the other side of the door so that when she swung it open and bent down to pick up any papers we had slid under her door she’d come face to face with our new friend. But then my dad had a brilliant idea and tied a wire around the spiders leg, attaching the wire to the door. Now, when she opened the door, she’d bend down, see the spider, and then the spider would scurry along, of course scared because there is a screaming lady.

The spider was set, mom pulls into the parking lot and heads to her office. We were all quiet. Can you believe that she completely missed the spider, but managed to kick it with her foot while walking past?

She came out to my office and I asked her, “How do you like your new office friend?”

“I didn’t even see that I had an office friend,” she said and walked down the hall to her office.

We all waited, then heard the scream.

Like I said, I love my job.