Crazy Convos:"Watched"

Oh my, what a wonderful glorious day!!

I was FORCED into taking half a day off on Thursday, and all of Friday off. Folks, I have TOO many hours, so I have to go home (Awwww. . . poor me).

When I was walking through the halls, heading for the elevator yesterday at 10:30 in the a.m., I stuck my head in the doors of several offices and labs and yelled a bit TOO loudly:

"Ya'll have a FINE FINE weekend!!!"

Folks were running behind me talking about "Where you going, LadyLee!?"

I am OFF.

This is RARE.

It feels GOOD.

So I plan to enjoy my day. I'm going to write for a couple of hours today, go to a Friday morning bible study, and go do a little bit of overdo shopping. I need a couple of summery shirts, and some general stuff for around the house. I plan on picking up some paint for the walls. I need more yarn. I ALWAYS need yarn.

Then, later today, I'm going to spend a little time in the garden.

And I know when I'm out in the garden, I am being. . . watched.

And I don't like being watched.


Now, another one of my major hangups is that I don't like being watched. Don't watch me to see what I'm going to do. I can sense this real quick, and 10 times out of 10, I don't care for it. And it's usually under the following context.

"Ladylee I think you're mad. Are you mad at me?"
"No, I'm not mad at you."


I want to add, "I got ish on my mind. Or I am upset about something else. Or I don't feel well today. Or I got a problem I am trying to work out in my head. Or, I'm not in a talkative mood. Or I just want to be quiet. You are not that important for me to be focused on you right now."

"Okay, Ladylee," they will say.

Then that person sits back and "watches" what I do. And since I don't have that special expertise of saying what you want me to say or doing what you think I should be doing (in other words, kissing your behind), then well... there's a problem.

So, I ain't folks favorite person. I'm not the flower of the group, with all the friends and such.

If you are "watching" me, you get written off REAL quick. Yep. Another one of my key idiosyncrasies. We all got em!!

Okay, back to the subject of my post:

I had another crazy convo last week. A very unusual convo.

So. . .

I was sitting at my desk at work one day last week, crunching out some data, trying to meet a deadline for some paperwork. I had my headphones on and had some good music going. It was great, nobody was bothering me, and I was just chugging along.

My cellphone vibrates.

I flip it open to see who it is. I don't recognize the number, but feel as though I've seen it before.

I usually don't answer if I don't know who's calling. But for some reason, that day, I was. . . curious.

I pressed talk.

"Hello."
"Hiya Ladylee."

"Yeah?" I don't catch the voice. I decide that they have about a minute to identify themselves or they get the dial tone.

"Ladylee, it's Stan."

Okay, I've talked about Stan in the past. Stan is my next door neighbor on the right hand side. I've written about my neighbor's before (neighbors to the left and neighbors to the right). I live smack in the middle of gay black frat boys and gay white neighbors.

Interesting. Everybody's cool. But my white neighbor Stan, and his man Paul are VERY nosy.

"Yeah, what's up Stan?" I wanted to say, "What the heck do YOU want?"
"Ladylee, there's a black car in your yard."
**deafening silence on my part**
"I don't recognize that car, LadyLee."

Okay, I'm rolling through my mind who that can be. I wanted to ask him the make of the car, but uh, I wasn't going through all that.

"I think that's Kentucky's friend," I said. I thought it was Kentucky's boyfriend, but he didn't need to know all that.
"Alright, I'm just calling to let you know. Because I just don't recognize that car. I've never seen that car before."
"Okay."

We said our goodbyes, and I clicked over and called Kentucky.

"Hello?"
"Hey girl, is Carl over there?"
"Yeah."
"Well, Stan just called and said there was a black car in the yard."
"What is he talking about. I just saw one of them out there."

Stan and Paul look EXACTLY alike, even down to the shaved heads. I've even seen them dress alike. I can tell them apart. Kentucky can't, and don't even care to.

"Which one did you see?"
"Lee, you know I can't tell them apart. I said hello, that's all."
"Look, if them jokers knock on the door, you better answer it. I don't need them calling the police and my door getting kicked in."
"But they didn't knock on the door. Me and Carl went to get something to eat, and we saw them when they were out there."
"Well, whatever."

Me and Kentucky CONSTANTLY joke about Stan and Paul. If they see either of us outside, they come outside. Now, ya'll know I am not a kindly friendly neighbor. Leave me alone. They rarely see me, but they see Kentucky all the time. And they are ALWAYS running up on her. I park my car in the garage, and they're gonna get smashed by the closing garage door if they run up on me.

But they LOVE themselves some Kentucky.

"Lee, I went outside at 3 in the morning to get something out of my car. One of them was out there, yelling 'Hey Kay'."

LOL!!

I have my own run-ins with them over the years. Anytime a strange car is in my yard, or if I have company, something is said.

"I see you got a new car, LadyLee."
"I see you had a friend over, LadyLee."

Sigh. Nothing worse than being. . .watched.

I can be standing in the driveway talking to someone. One of them will come out and get ALL up in the convo. DANG!!

But. . .

Get this. . .

Stan wasn't at home when he called me about the strange car in my yard.

Stan and Paul have cameras all around their home. And I noticed a good year ago that they have one pointed straight at my house.

So, Stan was at work or something. He apparently has computer access to said cameras at work. So he saw this car in my yard, and called me.

He has a camera trained on my house, and monitors my house while monitoring his own.

HA! You gotta love it.

I guess I should be thankful. They could be some crazy folks, robbing my house while I'm at work. Taring up stuff. Just doing crazy stuff. They are just. . . nosey.

So, with that said. . . do I really need a home security system?

Do I?

LOL!!!