It was over a year and a half ago that I wrote a post out of anger and frustration. I was a pissed off homeowner who was unhappy with the unsightly mess that was my neighbor’s property. Nothing in that post (which I will not link back to) was a lie or exaggeration, it was how things were up here on The Hill for a while.

Well, that neighbor Googled my name and stumbled upon this very blog and that very blog post.

How do I know? Well, she viewed my LinkedIn profile and the very next day her friends were on me blasting me for what I had written and making comments about my age (as if that has anything to do with anything and I’ll explain in a minute). These friends stopped by to comment on a post that was more than half a year old and was long since forgotten.

I told the friends that I would be sure to speak with my neighbor about the matter but honestly, the more I thought about it the more I thought…Why should I bother? Did she bother to say something to me when she saw what I wrote? Nope, she sent her minions to do her dirty work. Had she come to me I probably would have apologized and offered to take the post down.

I’m under no disillusions here. I know that everything I write here is out for the public to see; however, I never really intended for the neighbor to see what I wrote. She would have no reason to end up here except for the fact that SHE GOOGLED ME!!!

My first question is why? I’m an open book, you want to know something about me just mosey on over and ask. I would have told her my life story over a coffee or beer if she was really interested. My second question is why the hell did she feel the need to dig so deeply into this blog. I’ve got the analytics folks, and she was EVERYWHERE.

Sure, my life is super interesting ::insert sarcasm here:: but it’s not THAT interesting.

So what’s happened since my neighbor friend saw what I wrote (over a year ago)?

I’ll just say that if looks could kill I’d be dead a million times over, that’s WHEN she actually looks at me. Alright, I can’t say that I blame her…For a month or two, but it’s been over a year of this nonsense. I have to hand it to her, this woman can hold a grudge.

Her husband/boyfriend/baby daddy is perfectly nice to me. In fact he’s downright friendly even. I can honestly say that I like the guy, he’s pretty cool and very easy to talk to. Their daughter is sweet as sweet can be too.

Why am I wasting my time and energy to write about this woman again, especially when it’ll probably only bring some fresh hell into my life?  Well, it’s all part of My Life In Mommyland…DUH! That and there was a little incident this past week with her. I was dropping Logan off at Y Camp as she was coming out from dropping her daughter off (did I mention they’re in the same camp?) and I held the door for her and said good morning. She laughed in my face as she kept walking muttering something under her breath.

I will not stop being friendly. I will smile every time I see you and wave or say hello. You can give me the stink eye all you want. Go ahead and ignore me like I don’t exist. You can even try to run me over in the driveway if you’d like.

This brings me back to the age thing. I’m the young, immature one (so says her friends) so shouldn’t she be the bigger person? Shouldn’t the older, wiser woman let bygones be bygones? Proof positive that age makes no difference in any of this. The more mature one would have womaned up and confronted the blogger personally. Just saying. Oh and for the record I am not claiming to be the more mature one here.

What’s the moral of the story?

First of all you can’t get upset about something you find when you go in search of information, especially when that something is old and out dated. By the time my neighbor saw what I had written my opinion had changed…Hell, my circumstances had changed too making me much more understanding.

I’m not a bad person. I’m not a mean girl. I too am the kind of person that would give the shirt off her back to help someone.

Basically I’m misunderstood. People take my shyness for bitchyness and my goofy personality as being hateful.

Am I sorry I wrote that original post? Kind of. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone by it and it was just the rantings of a frustrated woman. Surely we’ve all been there at one point or another.

Have you ever said or did something out of frustration and then wish you would have done things differently?

Disclaimer: I intentionally did not use my neighbor’s name or identify her in anyway. There  are only a small handful of readers who know the neighbor/house in question. This blog is my voice where I can exercise my right to free speech and I apologize if you should ever find it offensive. I’m not here to start shit, I’m just telling my story. 

Since the house next door was sold last May I’ve been a little annoyed. For almost the first year of our time on The Hill we were all alone, and I LOVED it. It was quiet and serene up here all alone. OK, every so often we’d have a car drive up the driveway to check out the house that was for sale (we share a driveway), but that was much better than what I would have to put up with once the house finally sold.

It was promising when the house first sold, they had the place virtually gutted to have it repainted, new floors and bathrooms were installed. Surely these people were going to be good neighbors who take care of their property.

NOPE!

Since they moved in this past June they have committed multiple acts of neighborly war. First they never repaired the damage their moving truck did when it ran off the driveway onto our lawn. They are notorious for not mowing their lawn for weeks on end only to cover our driveway with large amounts of grass clippings when they finally do mow. We got so fed up with that one that we finally just started cleaning up after them…They STILL didn’t take the hint. They’ve let the landscaping overtake the front of the house, making it an unsightly mess. The screen on their front door is always left hanging open. Their house is the first thing you see when you drive up our driveway, which is why it bothers me so much. I hate looking at their mess as I arrive at my beautiful home. It’s also a little embarrassing when we have guests.

They’ve also opened our mail and packaged when they were delivered to their house by mistake, then they take a few days to walk them the maybe 50 yards to our door.

The are constantly putting their trashcan out early and leaving out for days after trash day. Oh, and they put it so its hard to see if anyone is coming down the road. I’ve almost been hit more than once because I didn’t see a car coming thanks to their trashcan.

They have a dog and the dog is what finally pushed me over the edge with these people.

We very rarely see the dog outside since they only let him out a couple times a day to do his business. This past fall I found dog shit in my yard and had to go over there and explain that would not be tolerated and if I found dog shit on my lawn again I was going to take issue with it. I was very nice about it, somehow I managed to hold back my rage that they would so rudely allow their dog to crap where my kids play.

Like I said, they let the dog out to do his business. They let him out, they don’t take him out. Well, the other morning they let him out at about six. It was cold out, I guess he didn’t want to be out there, so he barked. And barked. And barked. And barked. This went on for nearly twenty minutes. First the barking woke me up, then it woke Logan, and finally Cameron was up too. Waking up someone’s kids because you don’t properly take care of your pet is a neighborly act of war and is cause for some kind of retaliation. Because they were to lazy to take their dog for a walk I had a miserable morning with two miserable kids who were forced to be awake before 7am.

I’m thinking it’s time for Bill to take up the model rockets again…AT NIGHT!

Of all the people who could have moved into the house next door, why did it have to be these people? Is it too much to ask to have nice, considerate people who take some pride in owning their home as neighbors? With what it takes to buy a home in this economy, I would think that one would take some pride in what they were able to purchase and take care of their investment. I guess that’s just me though.

Do you have neighbors who drive you crazy? How do you deal with their acts of war?