Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s Airstream unless thou intends to buy it. And pay a price that you will both still feel neighborly about afterward. Our next door neighbor (yes, right next door) has a 1965 Airstream Caravel. How thou did not know that thy neighbor had this trailer sitting right next door still astounds me.

I consider myself an observant person, so I rationalize that I am just not that nosy. Since most home lots around here are more than an acre, and there is plenty of desert brush to conceal things as big as a trailer, I never noticed it. Brian, being a man, is really not that observant or nosy, but he finally sees it after living here for almost 3 years.

It’s like when your kid comes home and says she wants a VW Convertible Bug the color of wasabi, and you swear you’ve never seen a VW Convertible Bug the color of wasabi, let alone many convertible VW Bugs. But as soon as she says this, it’s seems like all the VW wasabi colored bugs that VW ever made are suddenly driving all around Phoenix.

“It’s the splendor of the conscious mind”, my good friend Denise tells me. “Humans have the amazing ability to tune things out in order to prevent information overload”. I have noticed that Brian’s conscience mind is extremely good at this when I am trying to tell him what to do.

That day back in September when I first Googled Airstreams, I will swear that I had never seen one before. The pictures were so intriguing because they were completely foreign to me at the time. Again, Denise, whose profession deals with the subconscious mind, would argue that I have probably seen many Airstreams in my life, but I simply did not “process” them with my conscious mind.

So, apparently, deep down in this huge reservoir of stuff piled in my subconscious mind, there are all sorts of Airstreams roaming around. Truthfully, I am a little mortified thinking about what else is roaming around down there. I also shudder to think about what happens to stuff when you’ve had too many cocktails and your unconscious mind has taken over.

I do notice that since that day in September, whenever we are driving on the interstate highway, or even around town, it is not that unusual for us to spot an Airstream. Even on television, I see them and I “process” them now. I just saw one on a Nissan commercial. I would also tell you that I saw one on the last season of “The Bachelor Pad”, but then I would have to admit that I watched the last season of “The Bachelor Pad”.

Wisely avoiding really bad T.V., Brian has been diligently working on Elvis and he will be perfect someday soon. I have been very patient, but my conscious and subconscious mind are still coveting the 1965 Caravel next door. Albeit, there is not much more space inside of it than our old tent, but I still want it. BAD. It has that cuteness factor that I just cannot resist. Hazel and Stella are completely grateful for this weakness.

So, even though my conscious mind says loud and clear, “Brenda, you do not need another trailer!”, I make a deal with thy neighbor that we both feel neighborly about. (Denise didn’t say that I had to listen to my mind.)  I am such a happy girl!  Now let’s hope the bank feels happy about processing that check I just wrote.