Friday, August 05, 2005

A Great Start to the Day

I started my day at 6 am this morning. This doesn't count getting up at 5 am to nurse Levi, I still consider that the middle of the night (even though Chris was already in the shower when I got up). At 6 am, Caleb and Micah came running into my room to tell me the door bell was ringing. Sure enough it was. I asked, did Daddy lock himself out? (He has done this in the past but that is in the winter when he goes out to shovel his car out and wants to come back in and get his briefcase before he leaves.) No, not Daddy, someone else. So I drag myself out of bed, wondering who in the heck is at my door at this time of morning, and for what possible cause? It is my next door neighbor, who I have only met once before, when she came over to ask if Chris could trim the weeds around her fence because her lawnmower doesn't fit there. He does this regularly for her, she has never come back to say thank you. So here she is at my door. She has locked herself out of her house and needs to call her daughter to come let her back in. I'm so ticked off that I really want to say no, but how can I do that? So I point her to the phone and she calls her daughter. She already mumbled about how she keeps meaning to put a key outside somewhere but hasn't done it yet. I'm wondering myself why an older lady who lives alone does not have a cell phone for emergencies. I didn't say anything to her, though, and just hoped that she wouldn't make too much noise and wake up the rest of the kids.

After she left, and I tried to go back to bed while letting the kids watch a Thomas the Tank Engine dvd, I started to get angry. I was very tired, since I had only been up an hour before with Levi, and needed as much of the morning left to get what sleep I could, and she disturbed me, but that is not what really bothers me. What the heck was she thinking? I am not the only neighbor on the block! But I *AM* the only neighbor on the street with toddlers and babies! Could she wake up the older couple across the street who go out to mow their lawn at 7 am, they were probably up having coffee already anyway? Could she go to the house on the other side of her who only has one son who is 12 who could probably sleep through a tornado (or at least fall back to sleep after one!) But nooooooo, she rings the doorbell of the one person on this street who desperately needs all the snatches of sleep she can grab. The one house where the occupants are NOT likely to go back to sleep after being awakened anytime after 4:30 am. And let me tell you, she didn't just ring the doorbell and hope for the best. No, she rang it, and rang it, and when no one seemed to answer, she rang and rang and rang it. Super-obnoxiously. O. M. G. I am so ticked now. She barely apologized, and once in the house seemed to be glad for the chance to peek around and see what the inside looked like. She had already told me the last time she was over that she had never been inside. I am envious of the previous owner of this house.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

She probably assumed that since you have a house full of kids that YOU were up. Despite the fact that she did not award you with the thanks and praise that you feel YOU deserve, I'm sure she did appreciate it. Had you been nasty to her, what would that have solved?

Anonymous said...

For one you would have felt better if you had been nasty. I would suggest sending over a plate of cookies or something with a thank you attached. Should be fun to see how long it takes her to get the hint.