Bye Bad Mom!

BREAKING NEWS: BAD MOM AND RYAN/RYLIN MOVED OUT 7/29/2012

It's true. Bad Mom had one oldish man helping her load a van with her stuff on Saturday and another oldish man helping her load this truck on Sunday. It's unclear if she was evicted or if any other Bad Boyfriend has entered the scene. Gone are the sounds of yelling and banging on the door. I can't wait to see what kind of craziness replaces her craziness and to hear why NOLD doesn't like them.

Lost & Found

The following artifacts were discovered by a resident of the apartment building, Lizzy, in our laundry room:

Found-Item in hallway-you identify, I'll return: Apt 2

This is a game Apt 2 likes to play. Any normal neighbor would attempt to return the item to its owner. Since most people are honest, the item could be returned without playing the guessing game. Since said item could be virtually anything, you would need to know what you're missing! She knows who the item belongs to-She just lives for moments like this! Opportunities for her to have power over other people, since she is powerless against her husband. 

Here's what I know...Apt 2 belongs to NOLD, so she wrote the first note. (See previous posts about Nosy Old Lady Downstairs.) She and Bad Mom have been experiencing conflict, about which NOLD likes to gossip with Lizzy. They share a wall, and NOLD has called the police on Bad Mom several times. These calls were likely warranted, as Bad Mom seems to be literally abusing Ryan/Rylin, but there is also a crazy element to all of this nonsense. Lizzy and I both believe Bad Mom wrote the second note. Also, NOLD has brought us items that she believed we had lost, so she does not likely believe it is ours.

Here's what I don't know...what was lost, to whom it belongs, or whether that person will ever get it back.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do?

Tonight's walk led to another interesting sight.

The first sign of something noteworthy. People are sitting on lawn chairs in the streets...watching the police at a crime scene.

The view of the crime scene from the end of the street where the spectators are.

One perspective on the large area that is blocked off with police tape.

I have no idea what is going on, even though I stalked the area from every area (for journalistic purposes, of course). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get better shots with my camera on my phone.

Also sighted on today's walk...Mormons.

Back to Normal

Hello Faithful Readers. Finally I have a good entry for you...just hours after I didn't have a good entry. And by "good," I mean rediculous.

Tonight I went for my usual walk. Well, it was somewhat unusual because I had a specific destination, as I needed to return a Red Box movie. And, the heat index was 91 at 9pm. I was wearing a t-shirt, gym shorts, and sneakers.

Typically when I'm walking I don't see other people out walking. People are hanging out in their yards, on their porches, and generally in the streets, but they are not walking. Tonight, soon after I left our building, I became aware of a guy who was somewhat near me. He was wearing a muscle shirt, gym shorts, sneakers, and a backpack. Also, somewhere behind me some woman was shouting something about Facebook. I tried to basically keep some space between him and me because I wasn't interested in any interactions. As I kept walking toward the store, he kept being close to me. I would round a corner and there he was. He wasn't doing anything creepy at all; he was just walking. And, he was always in front of me, so he wasn't following me. It was just odd that a) he was walking and b) he was continually near me.

At some point, I became aware of a woman coming up behind me. There were a few differences between us. She was walking down the middle of the street; I was on the sidewalk. She was wearing only a sports bra and gym shorts; I was also wearing a shirt and shoes. Soon, she, the guy, and I were all walking for several blocks near each other.

I was starting to feel like the three of us were on some kind of survelliance team. It was like on SVU when they are all trying to look like they are casually hanging out in the park while they are obviously not. I was imagining how we could make it more authentic...the woman could be talking on her cell phone, and I could have Lizzy with me. Then no one would suspect our true intent.

As I was imagining this, it became clear that the man and the woman actually knew each other. She was following him. For blocks and blocks, she followed him. She got within a few feet of him and started shouting at this time. At this point I was about 3/4 of a block behind them and couldn't hear what she was saying. I was torn between my curiousity (I wanted to keep moving toward them) and my concern that something bad was about to go down (I wanted to turn away from them). I worried that someone might think I was actually with them if something were to go down. We were all dressed casually (some more than others), we were similar in age (although I was probably the oldest), and we had been walking in the same general vicinity for close to a mile.

I was debating whether to turn away from them when the woman gave up her pursuit. She turned back toward me and shouted, "I hope you fucking get killed." I hope/assume she was talking to the dude and not me. She then said to me, "He hit me. If you see the cops, turn him in." I just muttered, "Okay," with absolutely NO intent of getting involved. She then said, "And, he has a knife in his bookbag." So wait...I'm supposed to believe that you were chasing him due to your fear of him? I'm not buying that one. All I've seen is you running around half naked chasing him, and again this has nothing to do with me.

The woman kept walking away from me and the guy eventually turned a different way than I was going. And that was the end of tonight's GL excitement.

A Happy Sight

I take walks around the neighborhood almost every night. Often I don't see anything to feel happy about. I see parents ignoring children, teenagers hanging out in the streets, and an abundance of litter. A couple of weeks ago, I saw the rainbow in the picture above. My phone camera sucks, so this picture does not do the rainbow justice. It spanned a huge distance and had a great range of colors. I walked toward it excitedly, and I wasn't the only one who was excited. A woman who was standing on the sidewalk stopped me to make sure that I saw it. It was amazing how a simple rainbow transformed the neighborhood, if only for a short time.

Bus Fun

I ride the bus to and from work every day, and I get to see and hear all kinds of interesting things. I often wear headphones, both for the music and to avoid attracting conversation from other ridees. I've known for awhile that I needed to write a post about the bus, but I wasn't sure what specific story I wanted to tell. Today I finally had "the experience" that I needed to write about.

I was on the bus home today, and my iPod was dead. I decided not to fake listening, so I didn't put the earbuds in. There was a guy who was trying--only somewhat successfully by my estimation--to flirt with a woman on the bus. This woman did not seem wooed by his discussion of why Christianity is wrong. Perhaps it's best to ask somewhat about their views on religion before launching into a controversial topic. Well, she still remained somewhat engaged in the conversation.

At the downtown transfer center another guy got on and sat across from the original guy. This started a conversation that went something like this:
--New Guy: I'm curious about your shirt..."Burn it where you buy it." (I'm guessing he was hoping it was a drug reference.)
--Original Guy: Very long explanation about the emerald ash borer and how they are trying to stop the spread of it by telling people not to move firewood.
--New Guy: A few weird detailed questions about ash trees and the insect, including whether it is edible or toxic. (Who asks about edible bugs???)
--Original Guy: Answers the guys questions...there are millions of ash trees, the insects are neither tasty nor toxic, the insects are beautiful.
--New Guy: Asks about preserving these beautiful bugs in some type of epoxy.
--Random Unbathed Punk Girl: "That's what's in my ears!" She pulls out her disgusting gauges, which has a spider preserved in it. "Do you know a lot about bugs??"
--Original Guy: "Well, I am a PhD student in etymology."
--Random Unbathed Punk Girl: "Do you know what kind of spider this is?? I've always wanted to know, but I can't figure it out." She reaches to show it to Original Guy but says, "Don't touch it! It smells from being in my ear." (GAG!)
--Original Guy: Says some words about not being a spider expert but having some ideas about what kind of spider it is.
--New Guy: Takes the disgusting gauge. "This is really cool."
--Random Unbathed Punk Girl: Thanks them both and pops the disgusting gauge back into her ear.

Sadly, we then reached my stop, so my education on ash trees (used for baseball bats and houses), emerald ash borers (metallic green on their backs and metallic purple on their stomachs), ear gauges (smelly), and spiders (more difficult to preserve than insects) ended.

Flashback: Day One

There is a lot of activity in GL today, especially a loud teenage girl who has threatened to "tell your mom" and called someone a "m-f-er," which is an unusual combination. Despite the activity today, there is no succinct story for today.

Instead, I decided to share the story of our first day in GL.

Lizzy and I moved here without ever seeing the place. My mom had visited it, taken pictures, and advised us against moving into this apartment. Against her better judgement, we moved in here, mostly because it was cheap and close to a bus stop. We had a service deliver our stuff in a semi, and we paid some guys from Craigslist to unload the truck.

Gina's leg was in an air cast that day (and other days). She propped open the front door with a stool and sat on it smoking while the movers went in and out. Her cigarette smoke permeated the entire building, and she asked the movers numerous questions. Despite the fact that they told her repeatedly that they were just the movers, she did not seem to understand that only Lizzy and I were moving in. After we introduced ourselves and explained that the guys were movers only, she directed more questions toward us, but she still had questions for the movers.

I remember us being amazed that we had selected this building in this neighborhood. It smelled bad, it was relatively dirty (not compared to our last apartment when we moved in), and we clearly had interesting neighbors.