Thursday, August 9, 2012

Sneaky Zucchini Day

"Good tidings, neighbors. We greet you with a zucchini and some kind words."  - BSteer

We did it! We sneaked around to six of our neighbors' apartments and successfully delivered our holiday zucchinis.

That is one sneaky zucchini.

A little background: while crashing with her grandmother during a summer internship in the Midwest a few years back, a friend of Brittany's decided to research unique summer holidays to celebrate with her friends back home as a way to stay in touch. One of the holidays she discovered was August 8th: Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Front Porch Day, or as I've taken to calling it, "Sneaky Zucchini Day."

While brainstorming fun ways to meet our neighbors, Brittany remembered Sneaky Zucchini Day and decided we should give it a go. On August 7th we purchased several zucchinis, attached a note to each, and chose six zucchini recipients (because delivering zucchinis to the entire apartment was a bit out of our price range). We were ready to go! All that was left to do was sneak.

This zucchini is ready to get SNUCK.

Morning dawned bright and lovely on the 8th of August, a perfect day to distribute neighborly vegetables to our fellow tenants. Unfortunately, Brittany left for work before I even woke up, I had to work past five to finish a project, and neither of us wanted to sneak alone. We'd been hoping to deliver the zucchini either before folks left for work/class or before they came home, but it wasn't until after six that we finally had time to sneak. Sneaking was made more difficult by the fact that our neighbors were out and about, so we decided to do some reconnaissance first. With my purse loaded up with veggies and under the guise of checking our mail (there was none - maybe our loyal readers should send us some snail mail [or even just post a comment... hint hint!]), we wandered through the courtyard to determine who was home and where we could get away with dropping off the goods.

Sneaking zucchini is a lot harder than it sounds. We had several close run-ins with our chosen targets. Two different neighbors walked out of their apartments right as we were making our approach; we had to tuck and roll off to the side to avoid being caught and try to pretend that we had any business being in a random stairwell across the courtyard from our apartment. That was not so sneaky. Another neighbor's blinds were open, so we inched along the wall and tried to subtly place the zucchini on her welcome mat. That really was sneaky!

Posing for pictures: not so sneaky.

With all our zucchinis delivered, we headed back to E26, triumphant and eager for some sort of response to our efforts. And we weren't disappointed.

It's a sneaky banana!

One of our neighbors reciprocated with some sneakiness of her own. While Brittany and I were cleaning the kitchen, or possibly while we were sitting on our couch in full view of the window and with the blinds wide open (absorbed in our computers, repeatedly checking the blog for any new traffic), we had a visit from the new tenant in E27.


 "Happy Sneak Some Zucchini on Your Neighbor's Front Porch Day! (I was out of zucchini, have a banana instead!) P.S. - Thanks for the zucchini! -E27"

We decided the note deserved a prime spot on the fridge as a sign of the success of Sneaky Zucchini Day. Even if we don't hear from any of our other neighbors (though I hope we do!) this absolutely made our day. It also made my breakfast the next morning. Thanks, E27!

Sneaky Zucchini Day was a lot of fun. Perhaps we'll keep the fun going by celebrating even more wacky holidays. 

Do you have any suggestions for the next holiday we should celebrate or other fun ways to meet our neighbors?

PS - Brittany is feeling a bit under the weather today. Sneaking zucchini will take it out of you. Y'all show her some love!

5 comments:

  1. I am so glad I could make your day! I hoped it would at least get a chuckle out of you. I wasn't sure that "Sneaky Zucchini Day" was a real holiday, but regardless, I had to honor the occasion somehow! - HK (E27)

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  2. That banana was received with much laughter and excitement; you certainly made sneaking around the complex worth it!

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  3. Give a zucchini; get a banana. It's the Circle of Life.

    Let's all lift a lion cub and sing.

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  4. This holiday needs to be more widely celebrated! You ladies sure know how to bring the fun to apartment living.

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  5. I LOVE E26!! My comments will get better with time, but for now I'm brain dead. Probably from eating cake for breakfast at E26.

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