Live and Let Live
I’ve been here 7 months and I like it less every day. Maybe it’s just where I live. The city is so hard and cut-throat. Sometimes I don’t even want to go outside even though I feel better after I do. People are so bold when it comes to asking for money and some get mad when you don’t give or have. It’s annoying as shit.
It’s becoming more difficult to see the “bright side” and I find myself fighting inside my head a lot more – trying to turn the frown upside down. Ugh.
We’ve been here for almost 2 1/2 months. I like it mostly but am still getting used to it. It’s more hard-core city than I am used to. It makes me miss Kailua, I felt a lot safer there than I do here. So many homeless people, it’s sad. We live close to Fremont, DTLV and not far from the strip. People don’t get up early here and it gets dark at like 4:30pm. I have yet to drive, serious maniacs on the road, it’s really quite unbelievable. Like, say I’m in the middle lane and miss a left or right turn I was supposed to make, I would stay in my lane till it was safe to get over and turn around. These motherfuckers will just turn, it doesn’t matter if there’s someone in the lane next to them. They’ll cut you off so they can get to wherever they are going. Dog eat fucking dog. I hate that. People just straight up use their cell phones, they don’t care who can see. Some asshole honked at me when I was in a marked crosswalk with lights flashing. Most cars have a broken tail light. I heard jaywalking was $50 per lane, you’d be surprised because these fuckers cross anywhere, anytime. I’ve yet to see someone gets ticketed for it, but the police have bigger fish to fry, I am sure.
I do like that we are close to everything. Money goes so much further here it’s crazy. We have a 99 cent store down the street that I like, that place is bizarre. Every time I go there something very strange happens. People watching on Fremont is fun, I see so many different types of people. I like the dispensaries. It’s nice to not be sweating 24/7 and everything isn’t damp all the time. The sun is practically always shining and it hasn’t rained since we moved here. Those are all good things to me.
New Year’s Eve should be fun. I read that security is going to be crazy on the strip so we’ll probably leave here early in the afternoon. No bags, no strollers. Snipers on rooftops. We are going to Mandalay Bay, House of Blues and not sure if we are driving 1/2 way and taking the monorail or bussing it. Either way, it’ll be an interesting evening.
We moved into our apartment building 11/2015. I love it here. It’s close to everything in town and it’s a very interesting community. This was a last minute find, we were 30 minutes away from signing a lease in Honolulu. I told our previous landlady, Jen we were on our way to sign the lease in Honolulu and she almost had a coronary. She wanted us to stay in Kailua and so did we. She had me hop in her minivan and we drove down the street to the building her mom lives in. Jeff, the building owner was in and after Jen talked to him for a few minutes we had a place to live. Our place is small but we have a large lanai that looks over Kailua Marsh and the Ko’olau mountains. The rent is also $600 less than we were paying before and water is included. Jeff is a great guy and helps out a lot of people. Some of the people he rents to are people who have fallen on hard times and need some help to get them back on their feet. There are also some really old folks, it’s not unusual to see an ambulance. We also have a few people that are not supposed to be drinking. All in all, we have a lot of interesting people who live here. We have given some of the people nicknames because we don’t know their real names. The apartments are small 1 bedroom places, some have lanais and the ones that don’t have a little more space inside. We get along well with everyone and Jeff tells us we are his “normal” tenants.
The apartments are small 1 bedroom places, some have lanais and the ones that don’t have a little more space inside. We get along well with everyone and Jeff tells us we are his “normal” tenants. We don’t complain, we are quiet and we pay our rent on time.
A couple weeks ago Jeff asked if I could move my parking space down one, closer to the street. Everyone who was parked moved their space over to leave an open spot because he needed to have a spot for handicap parking. The wife of the guy on the bottom floor who was parked on the other side of the building moved her car into the handicap space. She uses a cane and she is a rather large lady, super jovial and friendly.
All was well until one morning last week. Our bedroom overlooks the parking lot and on this particular morning, I was woken up about 3:15 am by rustling outside the window. We are on the 3rd floor so noise carries. I look out the window and see our friend, in her minivan putting newspapers into plastic bags. A few minutes later, ding, ding, ding from the car door because her seat belt isn’t on. I know she has a paper route. We used to see her on Saturday night (on the other side) getting the papers ready for the next day. The next morning, I have woken up again. Same rustling and the freaking car door ding.
So the next day I see my neighbor Steven, his apartment is on the ground floor, the nose of her car is facing his windows. He looked like shit and let me know he had been woken up every morning because she sits in her front seat and puts the papers in plastic bags and then takes off to do her route. He also told me he asked her if she could do the papers the night before or park somewhere else to put them in the plastic. He also told me (and Jeff confirmed) that they only reason she had to move her car is because the neighbor on the other side complained about the same thing. He asked her if she could go back to doing the papers the night before. She didn’t. He ended up having to get a restraining order and the cops came out to serve it and that’s why she’s now parked on our side. I am in shock because I can’t believe someone, who we thought was a nice person would be such an asshole. She has NO intent of moving her car in the morning and won’t do it the night before. Saturday the papers were in the car all day and Sunday morning at 3:15 am she is at it again. She told Jeff she “doesn’t give a rat’s ass” if it bothers anyone.
I am not sure what we are going to do. We may have to do the restraining order too. It’s unbelievable to me that she is so disrespectful. Her adult daughter and grandchild are living with her and her husband. Great job on being an example. I am a food broker and I have given her and her family so much free food over the past year. Now it just makes me angry so I try to avoid seeing these people and it sucks because her husband is so nice.
This wasn’t a bad year for me, it wasn’t great. I survived another year, it went by quickly. I feel like I am still in early 2016. At least I am not alone, a lot of older folks say the same thing. I read the Scientific American blog about time and it makes sense.
I was shorted on time because I drank a lot. I lost about twenty years and I brought it all on myself. Major events happened, people died and I had no clue. I quit drinking when I was 42 and it’s been quite interesting since then, probably because I remember! Every year I feel better so I hope 2017 will continue that way.
I decided to start documenting my journey because it was a suggestion from my beautiful mom, Aaltje. She died May 1st, 2014 at 72 after a 6 year fight with ovarian cancer, worst day of my life.
I like to put things off and I will be working on changing that, it will definitely help with stress & guilty thoughts taking up space in my little brain. Being proactive will also benefit my job, my health and relationships. Writing daily will help with accountability, even if just a few words.
I’m sure a lot of people will be out partying this evening, should be interesting to see and hear fireworks. They allow fireworks here if you have a permit, I am actually surprised I haven’t heard a lot up to this point. I park on the street so I am always concerned about random stuff hitting my car. Be careful everyone, lots of drinking and driving going on out there.
What’s going on with me today?
The sign that points to the police station now says police navidad, haha!! I should have got a photo.
I have been taking Sertraline (Zoloft) for a few years and it’s done what it’s supposed to do (help the real me come out). I was on 100mg and am now down to 50mg. I did a 25mg taper as suggested by my Dr from 75mg to 50mg, it’s been a week and so far withdrawal symptoms haven’t been as bad as I have read about. Only headaches and some agitation that hasn’t been helped with all this rain. A week and so far so good. I am going to stay on 50mgs for a couple of weeks and then will go to 25mg. Today is actually the first day I haven’t had a headache and I really appreciate that.
I’m cold. It’s probably in the low 70’s but I am in an apartment 3 floors up so that doesn’t help. It’s been the wettest, coldest winter by far since I’ve lived here.
I had a nice morning, went and did a little shopping and stopped for a nice photo opportunity on the way home. Oh and Obama is here in my little big town. We’ve actually had cops at the run-for-your-life cross walk! They are only here when the President is here, so lame. Screw the pedestrians the rest of the year.
It’s 12/31 so we will be going to get $1.31 ice cream, yay!!
Happy New Year!
pixielittledotme 