Go Tar Heels!

I had a face to face with two out of three neighbors today. I was cleaning up out back when hun got home and I made a "smart" comment (it was something like, thanks hun!). She sniped back, saying I needed the exercise. I thought, damn, she's going to get personal, now, huh? What a bitch. I realized that I needed to talk to her, so I took a deep breath and knocked on her door. She got angry, yelled at me for a while. I yelled a little too (but never insulted her, just tried to explain that I was frustrated), then said I was sorry, I just wanted to work together. She said everything had to be on my schedule. I said I was open to doing things anyway she wants to do things. I said I knew she did lots of things around the place and that we should be allies--that it was the other two who weren't pulling their weight. Then, vaguely-competent-but-never-home downstairs neighbor overheard us and she said we shouldn't have this conversation without her. I said, come on up and she did. She was not very happy with me either, but not as aggressive as hun. We managed to have a civil interaction, which eventually turned to other, neutral topics. I really like the downstairs neighbor, and even hun is tolerable under the right circumstances. Ah, well. At least the tone is calmer, more civilized, and more harmonious. We are all doing things around the place and that does make me feel better. See, I'm not offended if downstairs were to tell me, "I was out there at 6am and all the trash was thrown out on the alley and I picked it up." I wish she would tell me so I could say thanks. I want to know so I don't feel (and feel is the point) that I'm out there on my own taking care of things. I feel better knowing that we all care and are at least doing what we can. Downstairs has a crazy schedule, but she was willing to admit that her schedule was no excuse for not doing her share. I really do like her and her job is nuts. So maybe that means she does a little less, but not nothing.

I promised myself that I would do something fun on Friday. My first plan was to go swing dancing. I changed my mind because I needed to get up early on Saturday. The second plan was to go the movies. The third plan, after I talked to my work friend, MB, was to go ice-skating. We might have gone, but it was raining, we were starving and we didn't leave the office until 6:30. Instead, we went to dinner. We went to a new-ish place that I wanted to try. The food was not great but I got along with MB better than usual so I suppose the evening qualified as fun.

Today I went to the National Cathedral with DR and took a tour. This meant that I spent half the day speaking Spanish. Well, there is a reason I'm taking a Spanish class! She got a little bit of vertigo when we went up to the seventh floor observation deck, even though it was inside. We grabbed some lunch, I took her to run an errand nearby and I took her home. I had just enough time to catch the second half of the semi-final ACC game. Sadly, my Tar Heels lost to a very strong Georgia Tech. But, my other team actually won their conference championship. I never watched them play once when I was in college, but it still kind of cheered me up.

Grateful for: not feeling like I'm living with the enemy.