the calm before the storm? (naggie update!)

Buenos dias, amigos! [I'm practicing. I start my medical Spanish class in 2 weeks! I'm so excited :)]

So, I know a LOT of you were keeping close tabs on the Naggie situation. If you are not up to speed, then you need to read two previous posts. This first one is one I wrote when I was PISSED OFF. Like beyond angry. Like cartoon images of fire and smoke blowing out of ears pretty much  became a reality. The second post has a dramatically different tone to it. It is my reflection upon realizing that instead of being mad at this clearly insane woman, I should pray for her wellness. It's really interesting for me to re-read these posts now, because my attitude change is literally night and day. 

But for those of you who are not going to read up on the dramatic past [but really, it's a pretty good story] between my neighbor and me, I guess I can catch you up to speed. My neighbor Naggie [no, that's not her real name :P] is a 67-year old woman who lives next to us. We own a townhome, so we do share a wall with her. For the first year and a half of living here, she didn't really interact with us. Neither in a positive nor a negative way. We kind of got the sense that she was a little bit of the neighborhood snooty HOA spy, but whatever. 

Last December she started coming around to ask us to turn down our music. Which we weren't playing. Then in January she started calling the cops on us for supposedly blasting bass music. The first time she did it, we had a good talk with her, and I thought the issue was resolved. But nope. She called the cops on us 6 times between January and April. She called the cops on me while I was sleeping during the day [remember when I worked night shifts?]. She called the cops when we weren't home. She called the cops at 7am, 11am, 2pm, 11pm. Throughout that time, I tried many different approaches. I tried being a nice neighbor. I tried talking to her. She called me a trashy bitch. I tried being aggressive. I tried being angry with her. But that was too exhausting. I tried working with her - by talking through our neighborhood police mediation who is supposed to be able to help in situations like these. She refused to work with us. I guess I should add that she is African American, which isn't important really except for that she accused us of being racist toward her. If you know me, then you know I have "Equality" tattooed across my wrist.

She then tried to report violations to the HOA - that we were noisy, inconsiderate neighbors with dogs that bark too loudly/frequently. I refused to let this go down without a fight, so we had to have a hearing with the board of directors of our townhomes to try to stand up for ourselves. I believe this is where we left off the last time I blogged about this. 

Our hearing was scheduled for the second week in May. And boy was I prepared! I had all the proper documentation of what had happened to us. I had my "Naggie Journal" - what I used to write down every time she talked to us, called the cops on us, stood staring creepily at us from outside our home, etc. I had all 6 police reports that showed they found nothing noisy about us/our home/our dogs. I even gave the officers a tour of our home so they could see we didn't even own subwoofers or anything like Naggie claimed we did. I had documentation from the neighborhood mediation officer that showed we were trying to work with her and she refused. I had receipts from the sound board we bought and installed behind our television so that there was no way she could hear our tv ever. I was ready.

During the hearing, I honestly did not have to do much work to make her come across as unstable and quite loopy - she did that all on her own. She started working her conspiracy angle - that we hide subwoofers in our attic so that the officers won't see them and we can still blast music at her. She said we have police scanners that we listen to so that we know when the police are coming and can turn off our music in the nick of time. She said [this is the best] that we are in cahoots with our dogs and that they warn us when the police are coming so we can turn off our music and pretend to be asleep. She's clearly nuts. 

And if she did try to accuse me of something, I had my poised response ready. The board was clearly on our side within a matter of minutes. Then Naggie told them I was manipulating them all into seeing my side. As the board members mouthed, "I'm so sorry," and "Bless your heart," at me from across the tables, Naggie said she was going to hire a detective and a private investigator to get the scoop on our real past. Since we lived in Fort Collins all our lives then abruptly moved to Aurora, we must be running from something. Yeah, or Tyler got into medical school. But whatever. I told her to go right on ahead and that her Private Investigator would have a real good time following us from work --> home --> gym --> school --> grocery store. 

In fact, after the hearing, Tyler insisted I am embarking upon the wrong career path, saying maybe I should go to law school instead because I did so well with our "case" haha 

You know, I never in my life thought I would be followed by a PI, it's kind of funny to think that I'm that important ;) Anyway, since mid-May, we haven't heard one word from her. I'm hoping she hired her PI, and he told her we're the most boring 25-year-olds that ever lived. Then, I'm hoping she went to a doctor who diagnosed her with whatever it is that is causing her to hear music in her head and feel bass music in her heart. Because, lady, feeling bass in your heart is certainly not normal. She even said our bass plays so loudly that it shook her in bed at night. Whatever the cause for the quiet, I have been thankful for it this summer. I was legitimately prepared to be taken to court over this [because I know she took the previous owners of our home to court over the same thing...hmmm...interesting]. I even took extra loans for school, anticipating the need to cover court costs. 

I don't want to be too optimistic, because this could be all a part of her plan. She could be trying to lay low then come out of left field with her big attack plan again. But I am hoping, hoping so much, that she got help for whatever was causing her so much stress and anger. I know I prayed for her constantly, and still do. Maybe our prayers were heard? Although, I think she still hates me, because I've tried waving at her a few times, and her only response was an icy glare. But I can handle that if that's the worst she's got.

Cheers for the calm [praying it's really over!]