There's Always One

And there it is. In a manner of about 60 seconds I went from feeling moderately secure in my new home and apartment building to being more than just a little paranoid now.

Everybody has at least one. That odd neighbor who's just a little too friendly, and says odd things at first meeting that makes them seem instantly sketchy. Mine, I met a few minuets ago.

On our side of the apartment building, there are only 6 apartments, two on each of the three floors. On the lowest one the laundry room entrance sits between the two apartment doors. Up until now there have only been 3 residents on our side, both apartments on our floor, and the people above us. Now someone has moved into one of the units on the first floor.

I'm sure he's a very nice guy, and I am probably going to hell for making an assumption about somebody I know absolutely nothing about, and I'm not really assuming anything, but I have instantly been put on my guard. He fits that stereotypical creeper. A larger, balding man in his 40's, glasses and an accent that sounds like it's mixed and he could be from the Russian area of the world and from Europe all at once. He was chatty and pleasant but said things and asked questions that's seemed to be just a little too nosy for a simple passing in the laundry greeting chat. And it was those questions, as well as how he presented himself that put me immediately on my guard.

The stereotype description I could care less about, as I know very very well, nobody can judge a book y it's cover. But when he asked if I lived alone (he saw me with a only an hour before), or if I had children, when we weren't even getting that chatty int he first place it just made me uncomfortable. I instantly went from feeling perfectly ok with leaving my apt door unlocked when I'm home alone (like I can do back home in Minnesota) to locking it as soon as I got back into the apartment where Jay was waiting for me. And you can ask him, I would rather leave it unlocked out of habits from growing up, yanno? It takes a lot to make me THAT uncomfortable.

I really really hope he was just trying to get to know his neighbors, and that I really have nothing to worry about but for an overly friendly down stair's neighbor. I am going to keep an open mind here, without ignoring my own safety. I will still stay on my guard more than normal for a while... even if I wanted to, I couldn't stop myself from doing that I don't think.

I know that's not a byproduct of my upbringing in a bad location. When I was little I lived in a very safe place where my dad could call for me out the back door and from a block and a half away he could hear me call back that I was coming, very Leave it to Beaver esque. We only locked our doors at night back then...except for Christmas Eve. We left the back door unlocked for Santa. There aren't very many places like that now days. When I eventually have kids, I really do want to be able to move to a place much like the location I grew up in. It's a far hope with how our society is but I can still, in fact, hope.

I'm getting off topic here though. The being on my guard, I think, is still part of my upbringing. My daddy, and my momma, my grandfather's and grandmothers taught me, and all of us in my family... the boys as much as the women...we can't be too careful. We are to never think or say "Oh it can't happen to me." Because the chances are it can and will. It's something that lies dormant in me, waiting to spring to the forefront to help protect me. It's always there in my subconscious, I'm always looking around myself when I'm alone in public. In my purse I keep a knife that once belonged to my grandfather, still as sharp now as the day my Daddy passed it on to me. When I leave work alone at night, my keys remain firmly between my fingers as makeshift self defense weapons, as told to me by my father.

I don't want to assume anybody is a creeper or worse, but at the same time, you really can't be too safe. There are so many untrustworthy people in this world, and its really a shame that I have to feel as though I need that knife in my purse or that one extra glance around the parking lot. I should be able to feel safe in my own apartment building when we have a locked and key code controlled front and back door in the general access. *sighs*

Those days are gone I suppose, but I hope that's only for now. I hope that one day, things will get better, even if it's just better to the degree it was when I was a kid. I guess there isn't much more to say on this subject. I'm going to continue watching my back and locking my door, until I can get to know our new neighbor better. I sincerely hope my first impression was just off due to an over eagerness to get to know a new neighbor. :)

Interesting Day

So despite being tired and sleepy last night I didn't fall asleep till sometime after 3:30 in the morning. It sucked too let me tell you, lol. Over this last week that's how I've been, not falling asleep till 3 or later even, then I've been sleeping till noon. Well I was really exhausted last night and even if I had fallen asleep early I knew my body needed to sleep in late. I also had to be to work at noon today. So, I asked Jay to set the alarm for 10 so I'd have time to shower and get ready.

I don't fall asleep till after 3:30 and then I suddenly woke up at 10:30.....Jay'd forgotten to set the alarm when he'd come to bed like I asked. I was damn lucky I woke up when I did lol. I wasn't mad or anything, just wanted that extra half hour to shower and dry my hair so it wasn't a big deal.

 I worked from 12-4.. a nice short shift that flew by because Columbia is doing this thing called Show me Games where baseball, softball and soccer teams come from all over to play. Between games they come to the mall. This weekend and last weekend too. so the store was PACKED! There were 4 of us working and we were still running around like mad.

But it wasn't the traffic in the mall the bugged me. It was the traffic on the streets....

So if I take the freeway to work, from entrance to exit it's at most a 3 minuet drive for me. I go to get off the freeway and the ramp is so clogged and backed up with vehicles it was going back onto the freeway itself. The light at the other end turned green just as I stopped and i thought I wouldn't make it..especially with the people in the line who didn't realize that green means go! Haha I got really lucky, I was the second to last vehicle before the light turned yellow which is awesome. So I take my left off the exit. There are only 3 lanes, 2 left turns lanes and 1 right turn lane. I was in the outside lane because my next turn was going to be a right.

So I take my left and am crossing the bridge over the freeway and as I approach the set of lights at the other end, the person a head of me stops. Our light is green, had no clue why we were stopping.. till i realized the traffic light at the NEXT stop was red and traffic was backed up into OUR intersection. This just goes to show how dumb the drivers int his place are... there are signs ALL OVER that area right beside the lights up on the post that says "DO NOT BLOCK INTERSECTION".

Okay, I understand this amount of traffic is not the usual, but this area is still extremely packed even in the middle of a weekday, that's how bad that is, so imaging how much worse it is now.... So as I'm waiting at my green light to actually go, the exit ramp for the freeway going the opposite way I'd come from is directly on my right. That too is backed up all the way down the nice long ramp and back onto the freeway. Here's the kicker... JUST as me and the 2 vehicles a head of me are finally able to move again a couple of people from the ramp try to shoot out and cut us off one by one! What the hell!? They couldn't wait for their OWN green light? Really?

Well I wasn't about to let anyone in front of me they can all wait their turns, so screw them! At the next light I got over and took a right. It's the sneaky back way to get to the mall, and there was no traffic there to bother me either haha! In the end I won.

At 3 Jay stopped by work, brought me a water and told me and my boss that there'd been an accident on the freeway. With the way the people'd been driving it didn't surprise me one little bit. He hung around the mall till I was off work and we had an early dinner together. When we left I went home and he picked his mom up. Well i didn't take the back way to leave (because I would have had to take a few lefts with no light to let me go) So I just went by the stop lights. The first light I come to has 2 left turn lanes, a straight lane and a right turn lane. The lines are long both in front of me and behind me. Just as I'm getting an opening to get into the nearest left turn lane (taking the freeway back yay!) the asshat right behind me tries to get over and force his way past...of COURSE he didn't use his blinker either, that'd be TOO easy. So he almost rear ended me because I was getting over at the same time (I actually had my blinker on btw) And then he gives me the dirty look like I did something wrong even though it was my turn.

No one uses their blinkers down here, and no one... NO ONE turns into their proper lanes unless there is a lot of other traffic around. It drives me up the wall. People even use the turning lanes int he middle of roads to pull out into and use like a second lane until they can get onto the right side of the road. If I'm not a really good mix of defensive and aggressive driver, I will die in a car accident down here before I get to move back home. The drivers here suck! They still aren't as bad an the people in Miami though *headdesk* After that nothing happened thank the gods. I was happy to see there weren't any idiots on the actual freeway.

On a better note, Jay and I went to see Friends with Benefits tonight. It was really good. Not as good as Horrible Bosses, but still really good. You should all go see it!

That's it for tonight!