Take A Walk With Jan #6

Hello, friends! I haven’t written one of these in a while, despite having gone on dozens of walks in the last couple of months, so I figured I would tell you all about our walk today!

iPod Sampling:
Skyscraper ~ Demi Lovato
Cold ~ Evans Blue
Take It Away ~ The Used
Try ~ P!nk
Second Chance ~ Shinedown

It was absolutely beautiful outside, both today and yesterday. Despite it being February in Illinois, it was 60 degrees and sunny outside today. Liam took his first nap around 10:oo this morning, woke up at 11:45, ate his lunch (mac ‘n cheese, bananas, and apple pieces), and then we took off. This was the first walk that we didn’t need to use our weather protector on our stroller, and it wasn’t windy at all. It was seriously beautiful! I was warm wearing just a long-sleeve t-shirt and jeans!

We took off around 12:20, and our first stop was Subway, so that mama could eat lunch. I got there at the same time as a large family, and the mother smiled at me, and told her son to hold the door open for me, which I appreciated! I said thank you, and got in line behind them. The woman then gestured for me to go in front of them. I thanked her and told her we were in no rush, and that they were there first, but she insisted. I thanked her again and ordered my sandwich: Six inch veggie on Italian bread, no cheese, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles, olives, banana peppers, jalapenos, and oregano. Complete with a half iced tea, half lemonade. So. Good. I decided that I would eat at the park, and turned to leave, only to see that the line was now backed up out the door. A nice woman held the door open for us, and off we went!

At the park, I was forced to eat on a bench, as opposed to under one of the five gazebos, because there were gangs of pre-pre-teens running around, wreaking havoc, and being obnoxious. I sat down on the bench closest to the playground, and put Liam on the ground so that he could walk around. He immediately tried climbing onto the bench, so I decided to relocate to the bottom of the smallest slide, so that we could sit together. The playground was empty anyway.

Halfway through my sandwich, which I was picking apart to share with my tiny human, a group of 3 boys crossed the street, and met up with 3 other boys, who had been jumping around in the nearest gazebo to us. All the boys were around 6-9 years old, and were completely unsupervised. Whatever, they’re not my kids. Not my problem. Moments later, the whole group walked over to the tiny playground, and began running around and messing with each other. Two of the boys grabbed another boy, and tried to push him down the slide that we were sitting on. On purpose. This was the smallest slide, meant for tiny toddlers, and we were very much in plain sight. They were just being jerks. I ignored them, and they eventually stopped. The two boys walked away, but the third sat at the top of the slide, dangling his feet down by us, mere inches behind my back. I could feel him staring at us, but kept ignoring him. His friends called for him, as they were walking to the other end of the park, and he shouted back, “I’m waiting for this lady to move so I can slide!” Sassy.

At that point, I turned to him and said, “There are four other slides in this park. Leave us alone.”

His eyes widened, and he took off.

We finished our sandwich, and went down the slide a few times. I could hear the group of boys coming back, and kept ignoring them. Liam was sitting at the bottom of the same toddler slide, trying to climb up, when another one of the boys sat down at the top, and started banging his heels against the slide. I looked right at him and said, “Seriously? Stop.” And he did.

I could hear them bitching about me, and using language that would (hopefully) make their mothers slap them silly, when suddenly, an SUV pulled up by the park. The woman driving rolled down her window, and shouted to a boy named Spencer, who happened to be the boy I just scolded. She asked him if he was behaving, then looked at me, and asked if he was leaving me alone. He protested loudly, and I just smiled. I should have ratted the little punk out, but she drove away, and he was embarrassed, and that was good enough for me.

We picked up our stuff, and walked to Dollar General after that, where I encountered a man walking around with two unbelievably cute chihuahua puppies in his arms, a sweet 2-year old girl named Emily who was absolutely in love with my son, as well as a very old woman, who asked me literally 100 questions about my schedule, and what I was doing that day. I grabbed a few things from there, checked out, and crossed the street to the grocery store to pick up some pineapple, one of Liam’s favorite foods.

As I was checking out, I smiled at the young woman who was at the register, who couldn’t be bothered to look up from her phone to notice. She did not greet me, or say a single word to me, the entire time. She didn’t ask me if I wanted paper or plastic (yes, this place still does that). Not only was she texting in plain sight, but there was another young woman behind her talking to her about something that was definitely not work related. I’m not sure if she even worked there, because they won’t wear uniforms of any kind, just street clothes. She made eye contact with me and gave me my total, and I swiped my card. They also have to ask you if you want cash back at this place, that’s how old school they are, but she didn’t, and just hit NO on the screen. I didn’t need cash back, and she did give me a plastic bag, which I prefer, but she was seriously rude. I almost went to look for a manager, but decided against it, and just left.

Then, we went home. Liam got sleepy on the walk back, and my feet were killing me, because I decided to wear my boots, instead of my sneakers, because my sneakers look weird when I wear jeggings, which were the only clean pants I had left. First world problems, right? We got home, and I thought he would take a good nap, so that I could nap, but it never happened. So we ended up playing with our Mega Bloks (I ordered a second set off of Amazon, along with a nice baby gate, which should get here this week) for a while until dinner.

The rest of the week is supposed to dip back down into the chilly temperatures, so we’ll see if walks will be possible. I really need to get back into walking, and eventually back into Zumba. I’ve already gained 4-5 pounds back, and my new clothes are starting to feel tight. Ugh. I can not wait for spring!

Thanks for reading, friends.

Jan

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Random Prompt | Bad Neighbors

“Write about one of your neighbors.”

My track record with neighbors has been awful up to this point. Roommates, neighbors… both have been awful for me. My college roommate was terrible, then my first two roommates that I had in my first apartment (they were siblings, and then one moved out, the other moved in), were terrible people… and the neighbor we had at that place was an old man who would come over and angrily mow our lawn if we didn’t cut it every single day. I have also had drug dealer neighbors who fought constantly, and who bred very angry pitties. And neighbors who were drunk every night, and tried to start inappropriate conversations with me whenever I came home. I’ve had neighbors with kids who were so rowdy and loud that my decor fell off of my walls, and my ceiling tiles fell down. But… my current neighbors are just the worst of the worst.

I honestly don’t know who I live next door to at this point. I am certain that there is at least one woman, and four children living in the two bedroom apartment that shares walls with my own… but there are so many people constantly coming and going, and taking up our parking spots, that I don’t know who actually even lives there anymore.

Whoever does live next door, they are assholes. All of them. I have two upstairs neighbors as well, and have never had any issues with them, but this lady and her demon spawn… no. No no no.

I’ve had loud neighbors before, but these people are just the worst. I feel like when you live in an apartment building, where the walls are paper thin, there should be a little give and take. You should be more conscientious and considerate of your neighbors, but you should also be more patient and lenient on noise. I am both of these things. They are not. At all.

Now, I have a baby, which makes dealing with unruly neighbors even worse, but even if I didn’t have a baby, they are ridiculously loud. The mom listens to Spanish soap operas at full volume, which I can hear, word for word, clear across my apartment. All. Day. Long. Her kids are just as bad. They all share a bedroom, which shares a wall with my son’s room, and they also have a television, which they listen to at a very loud volume. At all hours of the day and night. Her children are also very loud. They run and scream and bang on the walls at all hours of the day and night, even late at night, after Kyle and I have gone to bed. They wake Liam up at least once a night. Every. Night.

I’ve politely asked them to tone down the noise, and they sort of did. They used to have parties every other night, and they stopped doing that, but now, they are just fucking rude. Like I said, I understand that there will always be some sort of noise leaking through the walls, but if it is 11pm, and my son is screaming because you’ve woken him up for the 3rd time, and I’ve asked you to quiet down, and you didn’t… what is WRONG with you?

It has gotten to the point where I’ve started knocking on the walls, because I am tired of dealing with their rude mother, and I can hear them laughing, and they will pound on the wall right back, and get even louder. WHO DOES THIS? WHY? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

I know that I need to talk to our landlord about it, but what could they possibly do? They aren’t technically breaking any laws, they are just rude and obnoxious. Kids are loud and energetic, believe me, I know… but these kids are just awful. They play on my porch and mess with our grill, and they’ve peeked into our windows before as well. And their mother does nothing to parent them.

So, that’s what I deal with on a daily and nightly basis.

How do you guys deal with bad neighbors?

Jan