2016
Just seeing it written is exciting.
I love fresh starts.
The last few years have been full of upheaval. It started when new neighbors moved in next door. To say they were weird would put them in a better light than they deserve.
Our house, which we had lived in for thirteen years, had no side yard or backyard. So when these neighbors took an immediate dislike to me and my family we found ourselves in a bad situation.
If you’ve ever lived next door to someone who is determined to make your life miserable you’ll know what I mean. Things were done that made us jumpy and uncomfortable. We quickly began to feel we needed to close our curtains and keep the doors locked at all times.
Which made sense, since we were under attack and we were being watched. A drop camera was positioned so that it would capture both the only entrance and the interior of my house (which explains the desire to close the curtains). I thought of calling the police about it, until I noticed that the camera disappeared whenever we had company.
We were ready to dig in and fight back. Then we noticed that our other neighbors had decided to turn a blind eye to the bad behavior, and there was a lot of it, and act like the newbies were their best buds.
It disgusted me. Where was that community feeling we had been building for over a dozen years? Were they scared they’d be next, or did they just not care about us?
We were under constant stress. So we sold our house and moved to a noisy apartment in Ballard. It had a lot of inconveniences, but it felt safe. After a while we got over our shell-shock.
Mostly, at least. I still shiver when I remember the many, many things that happened the last year in that house.
When our lease was up on the apartment we bought this house. It has a huge yard with plenty of buffer from the neighbors, just in case.
I’m ready for the fresh start.
To 2016, and a new beginning.