RAVES

I want to express how much fun and useful Toasted Cheese's Sunday Brunch chat is. We do a prompted writing hour, where Beaver hands out some fast prompts for us to write about right then. It gets me going every week. Want to see what I did this morning? Check it out at Chasms & Crags. (you do not have to join, just click and go)

RANTS

Today, it's all about my neighbor, L. So, settle in, this is a good one and long.

L. moved in to this run-down, trashed home next door to us. It had previously been a rental, and had seen a lot of abuse, especially by the last renters. They cut huge holes in the walls, shredded floors and carpets, and left enormous piles of garbage in the yard and in the garage. It was horrible, to say the least, living next door to that. A team came in and cleaned the bulk of it, but it remained unsold for nearly a year.

So, L. buys it. She's got it on a section 8, which means low-income housing. If she fixes it up, she gets a deal or something. After weeks and weeks of coming over on the weekend, she finally is able to move her and her son into the house.

Anyhow, so L. is about 2 years younger than I am, some kind of bizarre religion that's a cross between Christianity and Judaism (I haven't bothered to ask. I just don't really want to know that much about it.) from the sounds of it, weighs maybe 120lbs, has a stick figure, wears glasses because she has a lazy eye (one of those really FREAKY ones that don't look at you, but the wall?) and has a very egotistical personality. When she speaks, it's about her. I don't care if you open up and relate a similiar event about yourself, it just makes her repeat what she was just saying about herself. It's freakish. She has a computer which doesn't work, a tv she never turns on, and no radios that I've seen or heard. Her child, Ian, is allergic to everything, about 2 years younger than my kids, over here to play my computer all the time, and isn't allowed to watch about 90% of what I watch on the tv. So I have to shoo him out of the room all the time. I mean, I watch a lot of demonic kick-ass sword-fighting blood-and-guts movies with sex in it. I mean, she won't let him watch KISSING. It's so sad.

So, L's house is all run-down and shabby. Guess what she doesn't have? A fix-it man who lives there. She has people come over sometimes to help with big projects, but guess where she goes if she really needs something done? MY HOUSE.

I mean, she's over here borrowing either a tool or my DH in general in some way like every other damn day. And I've about had my limit with her antics in the first place.

Good examples of annoying L. behavior:

Today is Sunday. I usually get up at about 9, have writing chat from 10 to 11, and get dressed around noon. She was here at 10 on the nose to borrow the wheelbarrow and my DH so she could go to the dump. Donin wasn't out of bed. (Actually, he was, he was in the room with the window wide open getting dressed when I went in. I could see her in the back yard over his shoulder. *FUME*) I was in my nightgown and bathrobe.

Last night she came over and spent 2 hours on my couch as we ate dinner and watched my Sunday programs (Mutant X and Andromeda then Buffy). Now, let's remember she never sees tv. She has like 3000000 questions about the shows. "Who's that?" "Why's he evil?" "What's that mean?" "Oh, that was gross! I shouldn't watch this!" (There was a swordfight, and they didn't show the dude removing the heart, just him swooping down. Anyhow, it was dumb.) Like she's EVER going to see these shows again. Why ask a billion questions about something you neither care to see, want to see, nor will ever see again? You taking a poll or something? She's interjecting bizarre comments about how she needs to paint her trim PURPLE (omg) and dig a trench and how she had a nice dinner with the church group. Yeah, cause that's so relevant to my watching TV, answering your questions, and trying hard to ignore your exisitance. It got to where she couldn't open her mouth without it crushing my brain in waves of pain.

Friday she spent the day working on the house, painting and hefting things and moving stuff all around. She pulls a muscle in her arm/shoulder/neck I dunno. She's over (uninvited) and sitting here in the office yakking it up with Donin. (I'm making graphics and attempting to ignore her. Donin was playing a game.) She's having some kind of freakish drink with alchohol in it (my dh is an alcoholic, so I don't generally drink around him) that she's just raving about. How she made it, whats in it, how great it is, how relaxing, I don't know. Eventually, after about an HOUR of her being here just yakking, she asks Donin to MASSAGE HER SHOULDERS. My jaw just drops open as a streak of pure hatred runs through me. What GALL! What NERVE! THEN she goes, "Would you mind?" to me. I'm just screaming YES OF COURSE YOU STUPID BITCH in my head....but Donin has already agreed to do it! HE NEVER MASSAGES MY SHOULDERS EVER. I mean, I'm beyond angry at this point. "No, of course not," I say.

Let me pause...my nature is to live in peace. At just about any cost. Including self-respect, honor, principals, whatever. I must have peace. This is something I struggle against every day. To stand up for what I believe, to not back down, and to hold myself and my ideas in high esteem. It's rough for me. So on little things like this that I know are BASICALLY harmless, I allow it. That said...I suck. ;)

So Donin proceeds to massage her shoulders, with me sitting, just staring blankly in rage at the computer screen. I get over myself, let it pass, let it all wash through me and over me, and come out the other side into a kind of blankness. In fact, I did it so well, I forgot to blog about it (and I was going to), blocked it from my mind and didn't even bring it up with Donin (and I think I should, don't you?).

Now, it's not a matter of jealousy. Donin's not like that, I trust him. It's just beyond stupid for him to being doing that. It disrespects me, and I just don't think of things this way in time sometimes. Apparently, neither does he. So, now I can't even see her without getting a blinding headache. (As an Aries, its a sign my life is having a stress that I need to repair.)

So, any advice you want to offer, type right into the "Say Something" URL off to the side there. (Fourth link down on the blue section.) I'd appreciate words of advice, encouragement, and just general "hang in there" notes. Otherwise, I'll let the whole lot go without saying a word to anyone (except the blog) in order to maintain that peace.

Until next time, keep your sword sharp and your bow strung! Herete!