Scary!

So, I already griped about how much I don't like the neighbors, for vaild reasons. After I threw a hissy fit about, things quieted down and I didn't hear anyone or anything for a while. Well, now it's worse. Before I was worried about what could be happening or would happen. And then it happened.

On Monday and Tuesday night, in the middle of the night (after midnight) I heard someone outside the front door and they wiggled the doorknob. It was safely locked, and Bryan was of course home, so as much as that's creepy, I didn't flip out about it. The guy next door has creepy friends and I figured that it was them. Which isn't good, I know I know, but if my door is locked and I'm home, they're not going to be stealing my stuff for drug money today.

On Tuesday night after the door jiggle, I heard someone walking in the driveway. Then around 1 I heard a car roll up the driveway. It sounded odd because everyone who lives here screams up the driveway, slams into park, and goes inside. This time there were no headlights on, and the car was going so slow I couldn't hear anything except the tires rolling over the dirt. Then people went into the adjoining unit. And then all .... broke loose. Things crashing, breaking, banging. The floor and walls shook. And I was scared to death.

There's been too much noise in there since they moved in, so while this was scary, I assumed that maybe someone had a bad day and was having a tantrum. At one point it was so over-the-top that I thought about waking Bryan up and telling him to go over and see if something was wrong or if they could quiet down. But I realized that if they were drunk enough to be trashing the house, I didn't want him over there. So I let it be. But I was awake now, and scared about if something came through the wall, or if there would be any other sort of overflow of trouble.

I heard girls voices for a minute, and then nothing. Then the dog that lives there started whining, and I thought "Wow, something must be wrong if someone's picking on the dog." Yes, it crossed my mind to call the police, but I've called them twice already, and the landlord knows what's been going on, so I figured that if they were going to still be bad neighbors after all that, I'd just call in the morning. A little bit later I smelled something so strong it was almost sweet, and when Bryan asked me to explain it to him later, I said I wasn't sure what it was, but it smelled like chemicals.

Interestingly enough, I never heard a car leave. Around 3 someone walked up the driveway, went inside the house, and then there was more noise. This time it sounded like someone cleaning up. There was also a lot of noise in the back yard too, which made me quite thankful that Onyx was inside.

Then there was quiet until about 4, at which point the too-loud, shake-the-walls music came on. At 5, I heard more than one person, but no voices, and someone started hammering the wall. That woke Bryan up, and I'm surprised that it didn't wake both children. Bryan came out and found me sitting in his chair with a book, chewing my nails. I was so freaked out that I'd chewed them all off, in addition to not being able to sleep. Bryan tried to snuggle me and comfort me, but it took over an hour for me to calm down enough to sleep, because I would start at every sound.

Later that day someone came pounding on the door. It was the young man's sister. She told me a lot of stuff that I didn't appreciate hearing but probably should have known before. Like that there was drug dealing going on over there before, someone had in fact broken into that house last night and destroyed everything, the smell I noticed was the bleach they soaked the entire house in, and that there were some people who were mad about that house no longer being "the party house" who apparently came by to pay the neighbor guy back for it. She also said that there were people they had restraining orders against who shouldn't have been around there, and I've seen those people there before.

Pleasant, huh?

So I'm not sure what we're going to do now. Obviously, we keep the door locked, and we try to keep someone home to basically babysit the house. The back neighbors whom we like and trust are both moving out, one next week. When they both leave, we'll be here with only very very bad neighbors who don't like us. We'd like to just get out too, but we're really not sure anyone would let us move in since Bryan has no job. Not really a fun situation. But I also don't feel prompted that we should get out now. So I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm sure in hindsight it will be obvious what The Plan was. Just like not being able to get a house last year.

So just say an extra prayer for us. We'll keep everyone updated on when Bryan gets a job and we get out of here. One a happy note, I've been looking around at other housing, and I've seen several stand-alone houses for the same rent as we're paying now. When we do get out, I have good hopes we'll find a good place.