Friday, September 26, 2008

Moving on

I have a neighbor who is in the process of moving out. She's been moving out for several weeks. At this point, all that is left to address is cleaning the apartment and throwing out the trash. Of course that could take her several more weeks.

Now I personally don't care how long it takes her to move out. If she wants to pay rent on two apartments, that's certainly her business. What I do find a bit creepy is her habit of showing up very late in the evening--after 10:30 PM--to hang out in an empty apartment. There's no furniture. There's no food. And she's really not one to drag stuff to the trash in the middle of the night, mostly because she's afraid someone will attack her. So why is she here?

Very bizarre. Another neighbor and I have a notion that this woman is just about two bricks shy of a complete breakdown. She's always been a little odd. Sometimes she odder than others--usually when she decides to not take her meds. There is no one to report her strange behavior to either.

The other afternoon the househunk and I were leaving for an appointment when she came flying out the door (amazing how fast this woman can move when she wants to!) and loudly confronted me with this big smile on her face. "Hey! I just want to know if you're still writing that pornography!"

Experience has taught me that there's no point in arguing with her or ignoring her as she'll just pursue you until you drive away. So I smiled back and replied, "Yep."

"Hey! Do you get a lot of money for writing pornography?"

"Yep."

"Really? How much?"

"A lot of money!"

"Could I read one of your books?"

"Sure!" I haul out one of my cards... "Here's the website. I hope you enjoy whichever one you pick!" By that time, I'm backing out of my parking spot.

I have devised a way to deal with her, but many of the neighbors are flummoxed when she jumps them from the blue and starts plying them with personal questions. Her random appearances in our building when she's already living some place else quite a distance away is worrisome. I hope she settles into her new place soon.

anny

7 comments:

  1. I think she's sad, lonely and trying to push herself forward in desperation. I knew someone who used to do that. I feel sorry for her.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yep, I'm sure she is. Unfortunately, she alienates everyone around her. And her threats have to be taken seriously. There are too many sad, lonely people in the world.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hopefully she'll find a friend in her new place.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds like she's deperate to make money. Could be those two apartment rentals are costing her quite a bit. You think she means to write a book?

    ReplyDelete
  5. ah, neighbors. Always one that's a few cards short of a deck, isn't there?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hmmm. Kind of sad and pathetic sitting in a lonely, empty apartment. I think she has big problems but you handled her in the best way, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I feel sorry for her, too. We have a woman who calls our department several times a day at work to ask the same questions over and over and wastes our valuable work time. We don't want to be rude and we feel sorry for her, but she's causing a lot of stress and my boss is about ready to give her money back and tell her to find a new charity. It's a shame when people have such problems.

    ReplyDelete