A Paper Cut of an Evening

Man….I had a lousy evening last night. Started out nicely…heard about the boys' first day of school (basically good although Leo said it was very confusing and rolled his eyes a lot). I was tired for some reason. I'd woken up a lot in the night before—maybe I had first day of school jitters too? So Ernie and I decided to make macaroni and cheese for the guys and order Chinese for us. We were sitting outside at the table in the yard enjoying the evening when an old neighbor of ours showed up.  Drunk, as per usual. I love him though so I was happy to see him. We chatted for awhile and then Ernie mentioned something about NeighborGate. Drunk former neighbor responded with, "well, yeah because you kept moving further out year after year." 

I just stared at him. I was livid and there's nothing more pointless than getting mad at somebody that's drunk. Just the same I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I started to try to say that it was the fucking lilac bush (now long gone) that was there when we moved in that we used for our guideline…that the row of sedum that's planted along the fence was put in the first spring we lived here….back when I was trading plant samples on Gardenweb…that the 'refuse' pile in question was in the corner of where we'd had a huge garden the first couple of years we were here…back before we had kids and realized we couldn't manage it all. That the only thing we'd ever moved out past that line was a raised bed a couple of years ago and we did it so we could fit the lawnmower between the bed next to it. That's it.

I couldn't get it all out though because I was so mad and it didn't matter because he couldn't hear me.   The thing is though that when I heard those words come out of his mouth I knew he'd been trash talking us with the neighbor in NeighborGate. That neighbor had said to us, during his screaming fit, "didn't so and so ever tell you I hated that pile?" All of a sudden I could just imagine this guy egging him on.

I was so hurt.

I walked into the house and burst into tears. Leo leapt off Minecraft and ran to me. The boys hugged me and told me it was going to be all right. And of course it is. In the scheme of things this is nothing. Did someone's cancer metastisize, did someone die, did someone lose their job? No. We lost part of the yard we'd assumed was ours. It's not a big deal. The misunderstanding…I was going to say lies but I won't….that's what hurts.

It's like a splinter, or a paper cut. They're not life threatening but damn they can sting.

Later Owen brought me a note he'd written that both guys had signed. I love the depictions of the event.