Interference

My landlady is making me crazy. She shouldn't be...because she really isn't doing anything wrong. However, the fact that she finds any little way to remind me that she exists drives me crazy. I'm used to living in apartment complexes. I sign the lease and pick up the key. One year later, I drop off the key. That is the extent of your impact on my life as a landlord. Or it should be. Here I'm living in the right side of a house that is split in half. My landlady lives in the other half. She parks in the driveway, I park in the sandy dirt beside the driveway (which will be interesting when it starts snowing.) I don't have a problem living near her. I just don't want it to seem like I'm living *with* her.

Whenever she's leaving town, she calls to let me know. I don't need to know. Then she says "So, just grab my mail and I'll get it from you when I get back." Umm...am I your b-fri? I think not. Get your own mail. Or get a friend who can pick up your mail. I really didn't have a problem grabbing her mail for her the first time. It would've been nice if she'd asked rather than assumed that it was okay to tell me what to do, but whatever. The real problem was that she said she'd be home Sunday. Instead she comes home Friday, then calls me at 10 PM asking me to bring her the mail. I'm not at home. "Okay, no problem. Just knock on the door when you get back." I hate her. 10 PM I'm skulking around the front door wondering whether I should ring the doorbell and wake up her kid, or just throw her mail in the street. I ended up leaving it on her doorknob then calling her so I wouldn't have to talk to her in person. I've had to get her mail twice since then. I hate her so much.

Another fun game is the driveway war we've been having. She has a two-car garage and a driveway. She only drives one car. However, I'm instructed to park in the sandy dirt beside the driveway. I keep mentioning its sandiness because it's almost impossible to get out of the passenger side of the truck. It's a hill and you just sink into the sand. Absolutely impossible after it rains, and probably my truck is going to be swallowed by the earth when it snows. So, I have the crappy spot, she has plenty of space. I come home from work one day, she's in my spot. Driveway's wiiide open. She's in my spot. So I park in the street. Two days later, there's some giant truck in my spot and it is pouring down raining. So I park in her spot. She calls me 30 minutes later asking me to move my truck. Turns out that the giant truck is hers too. She's getting a fence put around the backyard (that I'm not allowed to use) and she's been using the truck to haul stuff. Is it my fault that the contractors have been parking in her spot? No. Does the fact that her spot is being used for her own purposes give her license to use *my* spot? I think not. Seriously, do you see how petty I'm becoming? It's the fact that she's constantly doing little stuff that makes me want to hurl cats at her face.

Then yesterday, I pull into my driveway and I see that my trashcan is out at the curb. I'm sure she did this to be nice. However, my trash wasn't in the freaking can yet. Oh, but there was a bag of *her* trash in there. I realize that she's just trying to be nice, but come on! Use your own trashcan! Stop touching my stuff! Ugh.

So, she really doesn't do anything but remind me that she exists. But that's enough to make me absolutely crazy. Because if I like you, I will do anything for you...but if I don't like you, I'll do anything to forget you exist. And she's making that really hard for me. Stupid landlady.