Saturday, February 23, 2019
Love Thy Neighbor
Things have gotten weird with our neighbors across the courtyard. Or perhaps I should say that they've gotten weird again, as they have repeatedly deemed us both their best friends and their worst enemies, sometimes over the course of the same day. Our intro to them came when the doorbell rang literally five minutes after we officially closed on the place and walked into it for the first time; we were vigorously accosted about how the condo board president was definitely a sexist alcoholic who was 100% embezzling from the association. I kept looking for a housewarming gift to accompany the rant, but it was not forthcoming.
The first major rift came when Ian inadvertently failed to respond to some sort of email -- I can only assume a funny forward about cats -- which resulted in a full week of the silent treatment, followed by a speech about "our generation." We got out of it through a combination of apology and effusive response to future emails, but it was a setback.
There was also the "drunk shoveling" incident, where Ian heard someone grunting and crying outside on a cold winter's night, only to find that one of our neighbors had fallen while severely intoxicated and for some reason engaged in snow removal, despite the fact that we pay a crew to do that. There was a heroic rescue, but also lots of awkwardness afterwards.
Oh, and my mother pissed them off by refusing to assist with their quixotic anti-littering campaign against the public housing in the neighborhood. There were definitely some quaint racial attitudes revealed.
Anyway, things have gotten weird again, and as usual I don't really know why. Lots of icy silences and meaningful looks. I guess I should be happy, though; our other neighbors ended up with a restraining order against these neighbors, and I am not making that up.
Things have gotten weird with our neighbors across the courtyard. Or perhaps I should say that they've gotten weird again, as they have repeatedly deemed us both their best friends and their worst enemies, sometimes over the course of the same day. Our intro to them came when the doorbell rang literally five minutes after we officially closed on the place and walked into it for the first time; we were vigorously accosted about how the condo board president was definitely a sexist alcoholic who was 100% embezzling from the association. I kept looking for a housewarming gift to accompany the rant, but it was not forthcoming.
The first major rift came when Ian inadvertently failed to respond to some sort of email -- I can only assume a funny forward about cats -- which resulted in a full week of the silent treatment, followed by a speech about "our generation." We got out of it through a combination of apology and effusive response to future emails, but it was a setback.
There was also the "drunk shoveling" incident, where Ian heard someone grunting and crying outside on a cold winter's night, only to find that one of our neighbors had fallen while severely intoxicated and for some reason engaged in snow removal, despite the fact that we pay a crew to do that. There was a heroic rescue, but also lots of awkwardness afterwards.
Oh, and my mother pissed them off by refusing to assist with their quixotic anti-littering campaign against the public housing in the neighborhood. There were definitely some quaint racial attitudes revealed.
Anyway, things have gotten weird again, and as usual I don't really know why. Lots of icy silences and meaningful looks. I guess I should be happy, though; our other neighbors ended up with a restraining order against these neighbors, and I am not making that up.
