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Making Sure You Have Enough Sugar Can Preserve Your Neighbors' Image.

Before starting on that large batch of cookies, you should always make sure that you have enough ingredients to finish the job. What you are wanting to avoid is asking your neighbors for the stereotypical cup of sugar. By imposing on them for this small thing you may learn more about them then you ever wanted to.

Your next door neighbor is a motorcycle enthusiast. He dresses in black leather and ripped jeans. You are desperate to finish the cookies you started on without a trip to the store so you go over there. You step inside the living room, which is neat and tidy, with rather upscale furniture. You spy a Disney scrapbook on the coffee table and the image you previously held of your neighbor is changed forever.

Nearby there is a young party-goer. This is a kid that has never been fully acquainted with the morning hours. You are convinced that the interior of his home will be decorated with beer bottles and empty pizza boxes. Instead you find a classy couch, no sign of a television, and a stack of suspense books.

The little old lady that you thought you knew so well turns out to have quite an electronics set up. You find out that she has been avidly researching the history of the LED backlight and invites you for coffee so that she can tell you all about it. Fascinating, and not at all the yarn and needles theme you were expecting.

The meek seeming housewife is bound to have some sugar that you can borrow. She may be small, but she has a full weightlifting set in her living room. She appears to be a bit irritated at having her workout interrupted by you.

The prissy young woman may not be the friendliest person on the block, but she could not be hiding much. Then you see that she has been working on putting together a homemade fireworks display for a local grunge band. She giggles a little as she quickly explains away the smudge of gun powder on her nose. This is the woman you had an all frills image of just moments ago.

Being friendly with your neighbors is wonderful. Helping each other out is part of what being in a neighborhood is all about. There is such a thing as too much information. You may soon find that what people present to the outside world is not what they are really like at all.