Counterbalance, Countermarch

Last Thursday, Athennia and I had breakfast together and I saw her off to work—not expecting to hear from her again for 40-50 minutes (when she would be letting me know she arrived safely).

But just a few minutes later, she started sending me pictures...

From what she could tell, it looked like a waste management truck's load must've ignited, so he pulled into the Giant around the corner from us and dumped it in the middle of the empty parking lot.

A short time later, right around 7:00 A.M., there was a couple roaming the streets behind our apartment, shouting at the top of their lungs for their lost dog "Gizmo."

Imagine my lack of surprise when I realized that it was the schmucks from the second house on the block, who have a fleet of crappy cars with needlessly (and intentionally) loud exhaust systems that they love to show off by obnoxiously revving their engines every single time they come and go (at all hours of the day and night, naturally).

I don't recall having mentioned these winners on the blog yet, but here's a little snapshot into their psyche...

Yes, they're the kind of people who like to pretend they own the street and use stolen highway cones to try to stop people from parking in front of their house. (Almost makes me want to get a car again so I can park it here for days at a time.)

But the Google van hasn't been by since back in the fall (not that I'm complaining!); so, that picture doesn't reflect the broken-down eyesore that's been sitting in their front yard since I moved in back in November...

Not much else to report on yet on this front, although I've drafted up a letter threatening legal action if they don't quiet down (and, naturally, embellishing both the prevalence of and penalties for such complaints, while insisting that I have weeks' worth of security footage that could easily document actual harm done in the eyes of a judge).

All in all, it reads oh so politely unless you really stop to parse how passive-aggressive it actually is... Then it's essentially the equivalent of painting a smiley face on one of their stupid cones :)

Since I have zero intentions of actually wasting my time or money dragging them through court, I'm mailing it anonymously in the hopes that their lack of knowledge of which of their neighbors might have sent it will force them to take it seriously. But, even if they respond by being even louder and jerkier, they simply risk further pissing off their many other neighbors as well (any one of which might respond with their preferred flavors of justice).

Fingers crossed! But I like my odds of victory either way :)

We ordered Chinese food for dinner that evening; then Athennia and Riley had a long talk, before Athennia came to me and said she was considering letting Riley go over to hang out with Taylor and Ahlina over the coming weekend, but she was ultimately letting it be my decision.

...Okay?

Since several members of her family have made disparaging remarks about me as well as her, she considers this our matter even as I see it more as her matter that she's been enduring for years before I came along, and I'm just someone finally standing in her corner for the first time ever.

I really can't care any less what a bunch of adult-aged children (or an estranged uncle who's still alone as he's pushing 70) think about me; so, I told Athennia that I'm fine with Riley hanging out with her sister as long as she is. (I would consider Taylor and Ahlina pretty toxic on any extended timeline, but probably not so much in the small dosage of a few hours at a time here and there. And, all things considered, I felt that the benefit of spending a few hours in the company of people closer to Riley's age would outweigh the detriment of mild exposure to the same old juvenility of Taylor and Ahlina's vulnerable narcissism.)

So, we broke the news to Riley; and she was ecstatic and thanked us both profusely. It seemed like perhaps the dark clouds might finally be on their way out.

The next morning, Riley came into the bedroom to pet Penny on one of her breaks between classes.

I happened to be playing a bit of Minecraft, and I called her over to check out what I was doing, since I know she's played her fair share of Minecraft over the years as well.

I didn't anticipate that her eyes might wander over to my second screen, where I happened to have up a calendar file I use as a primitive diary of sorts to log the noteworthy things I do from day to day. And, I had no idea why she had suddenly become so morose sometime shortly thereafter (remaining so for the rest of the afternoon and at dinner).

Athennia took her out later in the evening to find a pair of hiking boots, and it wasn't until they returned home again later that I got the scoop...

So, Riley burst into tears the moment we got into the car earlier.

She said you wanted to show her something in Minecraft this afternoon... And, apparently, you had your calendar up on your second monitor... and she saw your notes on this past weekend.

She asked me what "monopolized" means.

Well, shit. Then that would be my notes from last Saturday...

11 March (Saturday)
- Riley literally monopolized the entire afternoon and evening with an all-day mopefest (compounded by Athennia having to do laundry and shop for groceries since these had been put off the past two nights); today was by far the worst day since I moved in

- Athennia made chicken gnocchi soup and biscuits for dinner

- I wasn't in the mood to sleep and laid awake until after 3:00 A.M.

Needless to say, Riley was crushed. And I of course felt terrible, since I had written that in a file I never intended for anyone but me to ever see.

Athennia assured me that she had done her best to explain as much to Riley, and I decided I would wait until the next day to approach her about it.

With the next day being Saturday, the three of us ate breakfast together. But I decided not to bring up the incident until later that afternoon while Athennia popped out to the store to grab some ingredients for dinner that night.

Long story short, Riley and I cleared the air; and I explained to her that it's not so much her mopiness on any given day that gets to me: It's the overall trend and the underlying causes:

Her best friend Kassie can be manipulative and bullying at times...

Her sister and Ahlina aren't exactly role models in any sense of the word...

And all the hours Riley spends on TikTok have done nothing to help her self-esteem.

More often than not, Riley is convinced that she's "rude" (because Kassie said so in an attempt to manipulate her behavior somehow), or that she's ugly (because she doesn't look like the painted-whore prosti-tots she sees trending on TikTok).

So I told her, it's not that I'm angry that she's having a bad day. I'm just frustrated, watching her wallow in a misery that's in good part self-engineered—and such a night-and-day difference to how my life was when I was her age. (I didn't always have the greatest friends either, but I had an undying urge to be doing something stimulating at any given time.)

Athennia made one of her staples for dinner that evening: sausage rotini with peppers and onions (and fresh mozzarella at my request)...

After dinner, we dropped her car off at a mechanic around the corner (for an oil change the next day) and walked home together.

Then on Sunday, Riley went over to hang out with the girls; and when we got the call that Athennia's car was ready, we walked over to pick it up and then decided to have lunch at Qdoba since we hadn't been since Valentine's Day and still had no idea what the story was with our friend Larry.

The employee we asked said that Larry is "okay"; but, that was about the best we could get: Beyond that, he would only tell us that Larry's "no longer with the company." So... as unsatisfying and lacking in closure as that is, I suppose it could be worse. We'll certainly miss him, and we hope he's doing well!

That afternoon, we finished the final episode of The Tudors; and the next few days were relatively uneventful.

Then yesterday, my mom and I had brunch at IHOP. Riley was super jealous when she found out we'd be going while she had to stay home and sit through math class; and Athennia told me to be on the lookout for Buttcrack Billy that they saw there a few years back...

I didn't see him anywhere, and I was perfectly okay with that :)