it was refreshing to see all my old elderly friends, complaining and fussing about the usual stuff. this meeting ran extra long as we had lots of "stupid" criminals to laugh at--they make the silliest mistakes. but one wasn't so fun...
high school boy has disagreement with dad over playing high school football. two days later he's still heated about it. he goes into his father's room as he's sleeping and stabs him 22 times. somehow dad is able to overpower the boy and calls for help.
one of our most irksome block watch attendees got into a heated discussion with the police officer who heads the Community Concerns Division. this woman is always getting in his--and any town worker's--butt. finally he was fed up after a year's worth of abuse and verbally--without profanity--slayed her. i grew tense, not knowing how he'd be able to continue his presentation with such tension, but he did, and with composure and all. most of us had chuckled at some time or another about all of her negative comments about the police department's way of doing things, so i'm sure she had it coming.
after the meeting was over, somehow she and i got into a conversation. we took that conversation outside in the drizzling rain, and talked from about 8:30 to 10:10 (i know cause i checked). i learned so much about that obnoxious women: the first thing being that she's obnoxious on purpose; it's her tool for getting things done. i learned that she's a twin and that she and her twin are total opposites (her sister being meek and quiet). i learned that she's single, but that her married sister has two daughters that are 14 months apart. The eldest daughter is like her and that drives her sister crazy. the eldest daughter is soon to marry a man that took the old-school route and courted her. and instead of moving in together before marriage, they live across the street from each other. i learned that she too is tired of watching so much riff-raft coming into this quiet little town. in her youth she lived in my neighborhood, so we spoke about all the local stores and places that "used" to be safe to walk to alone and at dark. she's a republican (i'm a supposed democrat). she's a catholic. she hates how her neighbor's loud music rattles her house. and she's sick and tired of being called a racist because she's fighting to keep her neighborhoods safe (cause God forbid if a white person complains about a black neighbor). and like i told her, "i'm black and i complain about my black neighbors, and some white one's too, but that don't make me no racist either." it means we're concerned tax payers who remember a time when life was simpler and neighborhoods safer.
now when i go to the next meeting and she's bitchin' and moanin' until it pisses us all off, i'll have a better understanding of what motivates this woman. cause God forbid if a woman talks in a loud voice that demands to be heard...that's just unladylike! and if this were Miss Nikki Ann's Living Room, i'd throw in some choice swear words like: "Fuck being ladylike when so much of the world is going down the toilet--make a stink if that's what kicks somebody's butt into gear." hey, maybe it's not my style, but how can i hate on those whom it works for.
