Thursday, February 3, 2011

monkey see, monkey do. no really.

“I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.” - Plutarch

Ironically, I came across the quote because a friend used it on a picture edit. How hypocritical of me, right? You decide!

I met my neighbors this summer, saw them in passing, would say hello. The "hellos" turned into conversations and we became friends. I actually started watching their little boys early fall when she decided to go back to work. We did typical things, went to a movie, to dinner, hung out at the lake, whenever and wherever with them, no problem! It wasn't a constant thing, but it was enough to call each other friends. Little did I know, or I guess, realize at the time the issues that would "develop".. ehhh!

Looking back, the first couple of "monkey see, monkey do's" should have somewhat tipped me off. But hey, new friends, you don't really know what to expect or the motives, no big deal.. right? I will just let you in on a few of the things that really irritated me, or looking back really irritate me now. Who knows, maybe I am the CRAZY one.. but I doubt it.

Back to the quote I started this blog off with. I mentioned that I saw it on a picture my friend "fancied" up. Now that friend isn't just a regular "hey, how's it going, wanna go to dinner?" friend.. though that is part of our friendship, she's a "hey, I am having a hard time with this big issue in my life and I need someone to listen to me" friend. A best friend. I think as girls, we all know, there's a difference between YOUR girls, and your other girl friends. Being one of THE main girls, one of the bests, comes with the right of passage for certain things. I can take this quote off the picture and it's a no big deal, though, not her quote, she found it and you got to give credit where credit is due.. thank you Jen! Hahahha. But seriously, we all know that your closest friends can purchase and do similar things, sometimes even the same things. The other girl friends, not so much.. especially repeatedly. Enough is enough!

This fall I bought a new Guess pea coat. Great deal, great great great deal! She went and got the same one, though she asked and I said it was fine, so it's hard to throw that one in there. But it was the beginning of it all. Not realizing that saying "sure, go ahead" meant "sure, go ahead, do whatever you want that I do and buy whatever I buy, no big deal!"

The next thing to tip me off should have been the trip to Disney World. David and I were meeting my sister and her family in Orlando, my cousin and her husband from Alabama were meeting us there too, and then my mom. They had plans to go camping for the weekend and ended up changing their plans and went to Orlando too. And no, it wasn't because we invited them. We saw them and spent some time with the boys for a bit one day at Magic Kingdom and then said hello at Bubba Gumps the next day. Didn't by any means change our plans to match theirs and hang out constantly, but did see them. No problem at the time really, we love those little boys and Disney World isn't a place to be upset. But like my sister said, them changing their plans and taking off to go to Orlando when we went should have been a red flag.

Still, yet again, this past fall there was another issue. At this time the coat and Disney weren't really looked at as an "issue".. more of, well that's kind of weird but whatever. I did find out later that Disney did bother David but he just kept it to himself. But, when D'Wayne told me that he was going to get another big dog, (his big dog got hit by a car last year and they have a tiny inside dog) flags started going off. We all know how much I love my boys and how much pride I take in how awesome my dogs are. We spent a good deal of time with Jude when we got him to somewhat "mold" him into the dog he is today- which really is an awesome dog, trained well, wants to please, just the most loving protective big dog. When D'Wayne was telling me what he wanted in a dog, he described Jude to me. He wanted a large dog, protective, loving, good with kids, obedient.. etc. Okay, who doesn't want those things in a dog? He came home with a dog.. that was the same color as Jude and went as far as to put the same freaking color collar on her. I went and bought Jude a new collar that week. A different color collar. Who does that? He said that he was going to put her in obedience classes, do whatever to make her the "perfect" dog, which annoyed me too, knowing how hard I worked with Jude, just go ahead and discredit all that work, jerk. He wanted them to meet so bad, and be best friends. Yeah, that didn't go well. Jude growled and jumped on top of her and he had to pull her away and David had to pull Jude off. BRILLIANT. Not only did he get a girl dog, he got a girl dog that wasn't (and stil isn't) fixed, knowing that we had two boy dogs. At the time Rigby was having his serious skin issues so was living inside all the time, being let out in the front yard. We taught Jude and Rigby to be out in the front yard without a leash, and most of the time they listen- unless there is a distraction, like their dog outside right near Rigby. Of course if they have their girl dog, who isn't fixed out in the front yard I can't let little Rigby out there without being on a leash. Inconsiderate. How long had we been doing that with Rigby? And the big thing with that is, he was on so many meds he COULDN'T get fixed yet. We didn't have the option on our side to get him fixed, unlike some people. We had been letting him out in the front yard since we got him because letting him out the backyard with Jude was a hassle at the time.

Life goes on, there were issues with me working for them. Supposedly more hours were coming, that never came. I was supposed to know by a certain day the week before the hours I was needed the following week, that dwindled to the point I was even being asked the day before. I won't get into that, it isn't really a part of the "monkey see, monkey do" blog- but it did play into the annoyance and decision to cut them off.

Of course there were comments after Christmas about him having to go buy her a REAL Pandora bracelet, or get her new whatever it was... because of the stuff I got for Christmas. Always got to be on top, apparently. Oh! And for a cheaper price! He must have the hook up everywhere because he can get everything we get cheaper! The day of Rigby's surgery (which included another inconsiderate act on their part, actually two.. that REALLY pissed me off) D'Wayne came to pick up the boys and actually took a picture of my new camera so that he could go and get her a new one for Valentine's Day.. just like mine. Okay, seriously, my camera is awesome. I love it. Love the extra lens. But there are plenty of other cameras out there that I am sure are just as nice. I got a Canon, anyone ever heard of Nikon?? Supposedly she was all upset because I have that camera and I don't even have kids, so now she has to have one to take pictures of her kids? Hunter will be 5 this year. Give me a break. And really, you have to have the model number off my camera? If I realized what he was doing when he took the camera to look at it, I wouldn't have let him see it.

Tired of reading yet? Because I could go on and on.. and I think I will. Just two more examples. Who knows, maybe I'm the crazy one, maybe I should be FLATTERED. I realize I am just giving an example here and there, and I am not the most patient person ever, but I had it. DONEZO!

We have been talking about redoing the floors in our house for a while now, were going to wait until after the Holidays. Waiting on a time when Rigby could be outside without any issues acting up, didn't want dogs in the house once we re-did them. I will admit, when I had talked to the neighbors about it, they too said they were wanting to re-do their floors but were planning on waiting until Tripp was older. Then it changed to possibly in the spring. Then, after I told D'Wayne that our floors got pushed back because of Rigby's surgery.. within two weeks his carpet was out and they were putting in new floors. Coinsidence? Maybe. But the fact that she told me the week after his surgery that they weren't doing the floors yet kind of makes me think not.

The final straw. The absolute final straw was when he parked his trailor back in our backyard with carpet styrofoam and fibers left on it. Yes, David had let him store it in our backyard because it was convenient for them, no big deal. Then the dogs ate the wires off. We got the wires to fix it but with life being so crazy it hadn't been fixed when all this went down about 2 weeks ago. The trailor was actually planned to get fixed that week and given back to them, David told him twice, though D'Wayne kept saying it was fine because he liked it stored back there. I however, did not. My not wanting it back there got much worse that Monday afternoon when I walked outside and saw the trash on the ground. The chewed up trash. If you are reading this and don't know, my dog Rigby had surgery about 3 weeks before for eating something he couldn't digest that caused an obstruction in his stomach/intestines. Now, even if I didn't have a dog outside that just had surgery for eating stuff he wasn't supposed to, putting a trailor in my backyard with trash on it for the wind to blow off and me to have to pick up is inconsiderate. But knowing, good and well that my puppy had just had a very expensive surgery makes it even more inconsiderate to park it back there with crap on it. I was fuming. FUMING. Then, he decides to talk to me like it's my fault and I am trying to keep his trailor from him when I just wanted David to fix it first, (you know, the right thing to do when your dogs ruin something that isn't yours).. yeah right. Door shut in your face.

I quit working for them not long after the trailor incident. It wasn't working out for more than one reason, but everything together made it an easy decision. I don't want my life copied, I don't want to wonder when I get something special, or do something unique to my house if someone is going to take away from that special or uniqueness and copy it. It isn't flattering. It is annoying. I have never been one to put up with inconsiderate people, and I hope I never will be.

I remember hearing Tab tell Hunter "see Hunter, monkey see, monkey do... you go near the road then Tripp will go near the road" - and she was right. Hunter went near the road and so did Tripp. As adults, we should have grown out of the "monkey see, monkey do" phase yearrrrrrrrrsss ago. Just sayin.

1 comment:

  1. I thought I posted something dangit!

    I wrote something along the lines of.. "Feel better? hahaha this is great. Love you, my little writer monkey."

    ReplyDelete