Nosey Neighbors

I’m pretty sure a)our upstairs neighbor is moving and b) that I’m turning into a grumpy old lady or similar.

A) there is a truck outside that is rather larger (that’s unusual for the narrow basically one way streets in this city) and it says ‘Crown Relocation’. Since I’ve been told that our neighbor is British, the letting on the truck makes sense to me.

There have been some unanswered questions about our friend up stairs. We call him Chris (because that’s what his internet wifi is named… unless he’s ‘unicorn’ and we’ve been guessing wrong all along.) We can’t tell who or what else lives there with him. At one point I was sure I heard small feet running around, maybe the child was just visiting. And it’s hard to tell sometimes if the cries/screeches are from a child, a cat or a parrot. Also I saw two dogs on his balcony one day and heard barking for a week, but not before or after that week. Then I was outside yesterday and heard dog whines, but nothing else. Mysterious indeed. You can always hear when he’s running the water and if he closes a door or closet, but no voices or music or any other sound really come down (which is good).

My parent suggested that I go up and introduce myself, and if I needed a prompt that I should ask him if his oven burns/ fails to brown cookies (alternately) like ours does. I’m never sure when he’s home and when I DO hear him I’m usually in bed trying to sleep.

B) I’m turning into a grumpy old lady. I am that neighbor that looks out my window but doesn’t want to be seen. I’ve also thought about posting notes on our neighbors door for various reasons, but never have because I’m not That far gone.

Since the gate (that we share) to the street got fixed so now you can buzz people in without having to go out and open the gate; it’s been harder to close. You really have to slam it, it’s loud, but if you don’t it just drifts open again. I wouldn’t really care, but a small heard of old Korean women wandered into our yard today. The gate was mostly closed, but not enough to lock, and these women just pushed the gate open and walked in. I can guarantee that Chris nor myself know or invited a heard of old Korean women over. But one even came up and knocked on the door, not like ‘are you home?’ but like ‘is this thing locked?’. I wondered how much entitlement these omas had, would they really wander into a stranger house and poke around? yes, I think they might.

*Oma: old Korean woman who is not shy about anything. she will blatantly push you out of any line she thinks she should be at the head of. she will cut in line. she will touch whatever she wants to touch, even if it belongs or is on someone else. she thinks because she is old that she can do whatever, whenever she wants.

I thought about going outside and herding the ladies back out the gate, but I realized they would leave faster if they thought no one was home. So I waited until they were gone then went out and slammed the gate with more force than was really called for so they would hear the gate slam. I’m sure it didn’t shame them, but I tried.

So, to my immense irritation, about a minute after I slammed the gate at the Korean omas and went back inside- a Korean worker from the “Crown Relocation” truck came out and duct taped the gate open (there’s a post the gate rest against when it’s open). I couldn’t really go out and cut the duct tape and slam the gate again, our neighbor (essentially) opened the gate and that was just being rude. I didn’t mind slamming the gate on random people that wander into my yard but its shared property so it stays open. And I double locked my front door.

We also have two cats that basically live across the ally at a near by house. I have been trying to lure the cats into OUR yard so I can enjoy cats without having to really look after them. At first I didn’t think the cats could find a way in (high walls, iron spikes, etc). But the black and white cat has somehow found a way in and I’ve seen her twice. I left out water and Justin put out some lunch meat but she doesn’t seem interested. And the one time I tried to open the back door and call her, she bolted. But now I dream about black and white kittens. I wonder if she has a litter somewhere.

PS as I’m sitting here writing this ANOTHER PERSON I DON’T KNOW HAS RUNG THE GATE BELL (my gate bell) but Chris must have buzzed her in, or the gate wasn’t closed again (the truck is gone). She walked in to read the meters on the side of the house. My kitchen window faces a wall so I leave the blinds open most of the time, but the meters are right below my window. So I’m sitting on the couch in my PJs writing and this woman can see me. SO not happy about this.

If ONE person taps on my window (instead of knocking on the door) because they see me and it’s faster than knocking on the door or something I’m going to lose it. There are only a few things I really hate 1) people that talk to me through doors, such as bedroom, bathroom etc. If it’s closed you knock and wait until I open the door or talk to you first. It just makes the door and privacy seem so false. 2) on a similar note, knocking on windows or talking to me through a window, goes back to the privacy thing. I have to feel secure when I’m in a private room or my home. 3) people that are crewel to animals, but we’ve already been over that. Sure there are lots of other things that bother me (people that never stop talking, smokers, anyone who thinks they are more important/smarter than you, fruit IN things. I like fruit and I like things that people usually put fruit in, but I don’t like them together. etc) but there is almost nothing that puts me on the defense faster than someone invading my personal space by ignoring my privacy.