Category: Neighborhood

Today

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… the next door neighbors annoyed the hell out of me going in and out of their front door which every time it slams, due to the shared wall, is felt in our home.

… Joe’s brother and sister-in-law came to visit.

… We had a fantastic dinner at Lonestar Steakhouse (5-star filet, baby).

… I’m transferring over a ton of MP3s to my Mom’s new computer so when we bring it to her house tomorrow, it will be ready to go. This includes the entire Cure catalog (yes, she has started listening to them, as has my youngest brother; all a part of my evil plan to make them as obsessed as myself).

It was a good day.

Meet your neighbors

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We visited another open house in our subdivision Sunday afternoon. This model was only a two-bedroom, so it wasn’t anything like our place, but it still made us feel proud of how much nicer our place looks. When we bought our place, we may have not been thrilled with the blue carpeting and walls, but it was still more appealing than this place. It just seemed rather worn and outdated. Plus all the walls were a faint mauve which made me feel like we were in a funeral home.

We met the people who live next door to the place that is for sale; they are original owners so they’ve lived there for 15 years. They were very nice, and quite vocal about the association and the crap they’ve been put through over the years. If I didn’t already live there, I’d be weary about moving in after the stories they told us. The woman kept saying they would like to move, and I was thinking “heck yea, you should if you’re that unhappy.” Plus they would make a lot of money on the sale I bet.

Man, I love open houses! It cracks me up how many nosy neighbors were checking out the place: all the addresses on the sign-in sheet were from our street! I think it’s human nature to want to see how other people decorate or keep up their unit. Our next door neighbors have mentioned more than once that they’d be interested to see what changes we’ve made since we moved in. We keep putting them off since we’re still not done. It’s another reason why I still haven’t had a housewarming party. At this rate I’m not sure if I ever will. I’m too neurotic and I’d spend the whole time obsessing that the carpet or furniture would get damaged in some way. Not that I have wild friends, but you know how people are when it’s not their house.

Other people’s places

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After we dropped the kids off this morning, we did some grocery shopping, had a quick breakfast, and went to Lowes, JoAnn Fabrics, and Archivers. When we got home, Joe installed the new faucet in our master bathroom, and washed my poor dirty car in the driveway while I cleaned the bathrooms.

It was 60° today, so we got the chance to open the windows and get some fresh air in the house for the first time since we moved in. It felt so good! I’ve been feeling quite depressed lately, and the nice weather really improved my mood. I really do think I suffer from SAD.

After Joe finished cleaning my car, we walked down the street to an open house because the place for sale has an identical layout to ours and we were curious how they had decorated. We weren’t the only ones, either. There was couple from the sub-division poking around, as well as a lady from across the street. On top of that, the realtor who was showing the place lives across the street from us too. It’s a good thing we didn’t pretend like we were looking for a new place.
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Bye bye dipshits

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When I went to my mom’s this weekend for my brother’s birthday party, I noticed that the next door neighbor’s house is for sale. These neighbors, much like the majority of the block, were never very friendly, although the one girl (of the two), who was older than me, baby-sat me a couple of times, and she seemed nice.

The dad and my dad have gotten into squabbles over the years over stupid crap like us parking in front of their house (even though they don’t own the street, or seemed to care when they parked in front of our house), us going on their lawn (as kids) to retrieve our way-ward balls when playing catch, sprinklers and the water touching their grass (ooo big deal), cigarette butts being flicked onto our lawn and roof from the teenage girls and their friends, etc. Fun times.

Not to mention how the dad would start mowing the lawn at 7 am on a Saturday and not finish until 10 am or later due to all the “breaks” he’d take that involved alcohol. It’s too bad he didn’t run over his own foot, now that I think back on it. The funny thing is, they had a swimming pool that took up the majority of the yard, so I’m not sure what took so long. Personally, I think the guy did it on purpose just to aggravate us because my mom typically slept til noon or later.

Needless to say, they won’t be missed. I took a look on realtor.com to see how much they were asking for the place and couldn’t help but notice how misleading their listing was. Seeing as how their house is set up identically to my parents’ house, I know for a fact that their “dining room” is really the eat-in kitchen and that the family room is really the basement, even though they have them both listed as if they are separate rooms. I feel sorry for the people who waste their time looking at the place. That’s not to say it isn’t updated, as I’m sure it’s more up-to-date than my parents’ house (just think shag carpet, ok?), but to make it seem like this is more square footage than really exists is wrong. Not that I’m surprised – once an a$$, always an a$$. Good to see their a$$es won’t be around much longer, though!

Punks

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I think I irked the local police today. Oh well, so be it.

When I got home from work after 6 pm (worked late) today, I was inside my car, cleaning the windows, while three 10-year-old boys rode around the parking lot on their bikes. I overheard them talking about “getting this car” or something. Then as they passed my car, single file, I popped my head up just as the last kid in the line threw something that bounced off the car next to me with a loud ping.

So I went inside and called the police.

Was I overreacting? Perhaps. But keep in mind that about a year and a half ago my car, as well as several others, were vandalized in the same parking lot and it cost over $400 out of my pocket to get my car repaired. So if I feel that some punk-ass kids are acting disrespectful around other people’s property, I’m going to try and stop it.

After talking to the kids, the officer came to my door and pretty much treated me in a condescending manner. He tried to make me feel bad for telling on kids that were, as he put it “just ten years old.” Um, wasn’t it a 10-year-old boy who shot his own father this month? Uh yea, it was. So don’t try to treat me like I’m being ridiculous.

The officer informed me that the boys claim they were throwing crabapples at one another and hit some cars “by mistake” and that they were sorry and wanted to apologize. One of the kids’ parents was outside as well. I told the officer just to tell them to be more careful. He asked me if I wanted him to string them up by their ankles and beat them. He was totally poking fun at me. You had to be there. It really pisses me off thinking about it. I just explained to him what had happened with the cars getting keyed in the past and that these kids needed to respect other people’s property. It starts out innocent now, but who knows in a few years.

If it was even ten years ago, I probably wouldn’t have done anything. But the world today is different, and when you read in the news about gangs of kids who jump people just for the “fun of it” and some of those kids are as young as 7-years-old, you don’t think of 10-year-old little shits as innocent kids anymore. A man was shoved into the street by a group of kids and now he’s dead. So I didn’t really appreciate the way that officer treated me.

I really can’t wait until we move and I can put my car in the garage and stop worrying about it all the time. Now I’m going to have to check it carefully tomorrow. Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I worry those kids might do something to my car to get back at me. That’s the primary reason I didn’t go back outside to talk to their parents; I’m hoping they don’t think it was me that called the cops on them. And if they really were innocent and I misinterpreted the situation, at least now they might watch their actions more carefully.