Love Thy Neighbor

Our church pastor, Alex, talks a lot about community involvement and getting to know our neighbors. This is easier said than done with our neighbors.

On one side we have Corvette Guy who despite revving his engine every now and then is really a good neighbor. He talks to Camden when he seems him, pets Gracie, and he also fixed our fence after Hurricane Ike. Corvette Guy also brings some entertainment to this house, and I'm really rooting for him to find a lady and settle down. He was seeing a Ford Escape for a few months, and I was really excited by this development. A Ford Escape screams 'practicality' and 'looking to settle down'. I thought he might have dropped the one-nighter Audis, Mercedis, and Acuras for good and found love with the Ford Escape. Unfortunately the Ford Escape has been absent lately, BUT there have not been as many random cars in front of our house on Saturday mornings, so I'm thinking he might be done with his 'overnighters'. Way to go Corvette Guy!

Our other neighbor is an entirely different story because for the first time ever we have official neighbor problems. The family consists of a divorced mom with one high school kid and two college kids. The problem is that her kids love to throw extremely loud parties... and she doesn't care. We all know that once you break the cardinal rule of waking a sleeping Camden, we're going to have problems. On several occasions, Aaron has had to go over in the middle of the night, ring the doorbell 8-10 times because they can't hear it over the music, and ask the kids to turn the music down or at least not blast the music on the back porch.

While Camden and I were gone in October the kid threw another party, and it got so out of control that Aaron called the cops. The cops came and kicked out the kids, but they were surprised to find out that the mom was home... allowing the underage drinking in her home. The cops came and talked to Aaron, and Aaron thought he could finally go to sleep... then the doorbell rings. Aaron opened the door to find the mother crying and yelling at Aaron for calling the cops. She claimed that we were rude, and the reason was that we were from Oklahoma and not Texas. She told Aaron how embarrassed she was because the cops came and shut down the party... and her home was a safe place for the kids to have a party. She didn't apologize for anything. I was upset by the whole situation because I didn't want things to be unfriendly with us.

It had been quiet since the cop incident, and I was thankful. Flash Forward to last Friday evening. Last Friday the mom came to our house and announced they were celebrating another son's 21st birthday, left her number, and said to call if there were any problems. I glanced at Aaron and said, "Well I guess we're not going to sleep tonight, huh?" The shouting began around 10pm on the back porch (right next to our bedroom), and we had no choice but to pull out the futon in the upstairs office and try to sleep there. Throughout the night, we heard random shouting from the street, and I barely slept. Camden woke up several times from the noise too. I heard shouting around 3 am and realized that the shouting was coming through Camden's monitor. It was SO loud in the backyard I could hear the noise through Camden's monitor at 3 a.m.???

I jumped out of bed with a mad rush of anger as thoughts flooded my mind. Why do I have to be kicked out of my own bed because the neighbors want to throw a party?? Why does my family not get to sleep because they can't control the noise? Throwing a party is one thing but screaming profanities in the backyard at 3a.m. is entirely different. All desire to keep neighborly ties was gone. I was on a mission. I ran downstairs, grabbed my robe, and threw open the back door. I tried to calm down enough to not look completely insane, but it was useless. I was a mom who had lost four hours of sleep because of a bunch of drunk kids, and I was out for blood. I climbed up to first section of the fence,
"Excuse me? It's 3 o'clock in the morning and..." They were so loud only a few could hear me over their own drunken shouts. I cleared my voice.
"HEY!!!!" I yelled in my best teacher voice. That got there attention.
"You have woken up my son three times. I am sleeping on a couch upstairs because YOU guys are so loud! We have tried to be understanding, but it is 3 a.m. BREAK IT UP!"

I got the reaction I expected... a few blank stares, random giggles, and the son's stuttered apology. I sauntered back into house and for the first time all night I heard silence. I ran back up stairs to the office, turned on the lights, and started to yank the comforter off the futon... with a sleeping Aaron still curled up in it. My efforts woke him up, and he blinked his eyes at me.

"I did it!" I screeched. "I went back there and told them to knock it off. They were yelling outside, and it's 3 a.m.! Three! We are going downstairs NOW and sleeping in our own bed because I will NOT be kicked out of my own bedroom!"

I think Aaron was a little stunned by my wild antics, but he obeyed by grabbing our pillows and following me downstairs. Once in our nice comfy bed, I explained everything to him. He was grateful for my rampage, but he also thought I was a little crazy. I didn't care. It was silent. I've decided that is a lot easier to love your neighbor with a full night's sleep.