Neighbors

I've been a renter for most of my adult life.  I am quite comfortable with that, since it (a) gives me the mobility I need when it's time to make a change, and (b) the landlord has to pay to fix anything big that breaks. I have been very happy in each of my rented spaces.  Big farmhouse, small city apartment, two-family duplex, each of them has met my needs according to the circumstances of my life at any given time.

Only now do I find myself becoming discontented.  Why? Because I have an inconsiderate, noisy, obnoxious, messy neighbor who doesn't give a flying fig what anybody around her thinks.

This is shocking to me.  I can't say that I have necessarily prided myself on being a good neighbor (though I certainly do strive to be such). But I can't imagine not caring what anybody thinks. I can't imagine having people mightily pissed off at me and not minding it one bit.

It's also shocking to me that this is happening in suburbia.  I've lived in cities (NYC, Washington DC, even a stint in Florence, Italy) and I've never had this problem before.  Maybe it's because people in cities are more accustomed to being closely surrounded by people, and they've learned to adapt out of necessity (if you piss off the people around you, you might find yourself with a non-metaphorical knife in your back).

Or maybe it's just her.  She has a sucky life, I must admit.  A single mom like me, she lives in the same town as her highly dysfunctional family (who all seem to come visit at the oddest hours, taking up space in our shared driveway). She has her own business and seems to be struggling to succeed.  She's going through a divorce, but inexplicably, her someday-ex-husband has moved in with her and their son because he lost his job and his car.  She has a boyfriend, so she can't be happy that she's got the albatross husband around her neck.  (Although I do have to ask, if only in my own mind, why did she let him move in?).  She was recently arrested (in front of her son) for punching said husband in the face to try to stop him from searching her car for weed.

Did I mention her poopy dog?