Conversations with Florida Girl

Florida Girl, for those of you may not know, is one of my closest and dearest friends in the whole wide world. We went to college together, and despite the fact we live nowhere near each other, we talk pretty often and are probably just as close as we were then. About five years ago, we went to London together for 10 days and I wrote down one of our inane flights of fantasy in my travel journal and it went something like: we were going to buy a sheep farm in Ireland and we were going to buy a 1,000 sheep and sell sweaters. There were other things, but I remember the sheep farm thing the most because a) I don't like animals, b) I know nothing about sheep, c) I know nothing about making sweaters and d) I'm not so big into dirt and manure.

I didn't say we always made sense.

Case in point. Today, Florida Girl called me just as I was walking out the door for a lunch date and because it was Florida Girl, I dawdled just a few minutes so I could hear all the particulars of her busy Sunday morning. She was talking about having to edge the lawn, mow the lawn, and was planning to buy gravel and plant some bushes.

"You know," she said, "you should buy a house and then we could talk about these things. You could give me pointers."

"You want me to buy a house so I can tell you what to do with your house?"

"You're such an over-achiever, you'll probably figure out the best way to do everything and then you can tell me all about it, and it'll be easier for me."

"So let me get this straight: in order to make your life easier, you want me to buy a house?"

"It'll be so much fun."

In case you're wondering, I currently have no plans to buy a house. Even if I do so covet the red-brick townhouses springing up like weeds on my street.