My downstairs neighbor moved out today.  For those of you not in the know, she’s probably one of the biggest bitches I’ve ever met.

That’s not just me not liking someone.  My surrounding neighbors are currently celebrating her move in our parking lot with loud music, a cookout and Dominoes.  The game, not the pizza place.  If that doesn’t speak to how much of a bitch she is, I don’t know what does.

It’s kinda cool, cause they listen to music M usually isn’t interested in.  Not specifically rap, but a bit of pop, some oldies, reggae, a lot of Motown.  Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Four Tops and The Jackson 5 are today’s soundtrack.

I… wanna be out there.  Dancing, playing Dominoes and raising hell.  My body hasn’t stopped moving since they turned the radio on.  Unfortunately, we already did our partying this week, and we’re both feeling pretty crappy.  So here I sit.  But that’s okay.  Spring is just starting and we’ve got all of summer.  Without the bitch living downstairs, our parking lot will probably become “The Party Zone”. 

This isn’t the first time my parking lot has been “The Party Zone” in my life.  Years ago, my parking lot was always where you could find the keg.  There was almost always a giant conference-type table and a bunch of folding chairs.  Cards, dice, dominoes, horseshoes in the grass and a swing set for the kids up on the flat part of the hill.  Ashtrays all around cause I was neurotic about cigarette butts, a weight bench by the house where we had our “Battle of the Sexes” weight-lifting contests.

Us girls always won.

M’s not so much a social butterfly.  He tolerates what little socializing I manage to talk Him into, barely restraining His desire to go home.  He holds His own in conversation once He figures out what He has in common with the people around Him.  But finding something they have in common always proves difficult.  Except at the office.

M didn’t grow up on the mean streets of New York.  Though He did spend some time on Hamilton Hill (the worst neighborhood in our town), true to form, He stuck mostly to Himself with His nose in His ElfQuest books and video games.  He went on a missionary trip to Africa.  He had babies.  So when He asked me what He had in common with the neighbor, the only thing I could come up with was, “You’re both men.”

I think, at this point, it’s not so much any specific group of people I want to spend time with, so much as I’ve got a serious case of party withdrawal and cabin fever, and they happen to be right outside.  If there was a group of aliens (extra terrestrials, not immigrants) out front partying in my parking lot, I’d want to be out there.  These four walls feel like they’re closing in on me.

I wonder if my landlord will let me paint.

Anyway, that’s all I got today.