Tuesday, June 02, 2009

I'm not the nicest guy ever made, but I consider myself to be pretty damn friendly. I listen to my friends when I can, I call or text them on their birthdays, I hold the door for strangers, and I try to speak to my neighbors on a regular basis. Hell, I've even gotten a fresh new bottle of wine for one of my neighbors, and I'm not even upset that she hasn't invited us over to drink, despite promising to do so last year. But this morning, my patience and friendliness were tested in such a way, that I may revert to my crotchety, curmudgeon ways.

I switched things up this morning, and I went running instead of swimming. I don't know where YOU live, but where I live it is pretty damn humid, even at 6am when I left the house. I did almost a 35 minute run, and about 5 minutes in, I was sweating like this man in the 4th quarter. Still, I put my head down and powered through the run. After I finished, I was completely drenched, tired, and ready to come up to my apartment, and get hydrated, but before I went in my building I took the time to bring in the newspapers.

Now I am very sensitive about bringing in the newspapers that are thrown in front of my building. Someone was mysteriously stealing my Sunday Washington Post at one point, and eventually I had to cancel my subscription, because I was only seeing it every other Sunday. Other times I would have the paper and not the insert or vice versa. So for that reason, when I see a newspaper that needs to be brought in, I pick it up and put it on the table in my lobby. Pretty nice right?

This morning, as I am bringing in the 4 newspapers and stepping through the door, I see one of my neighbors walking towards me in the lobby. This is one of the neighbors who I do NOT speak to, but we've made eye contact in my building for a little over a year now. I know he knows who the hell I am. But when he saw that one of the four newspapers I am carrying towards the lobby table was his, he says excuse me that's mine, snatches the paper out of my hand, which causes the other 3 papers to fall, and he walks out in one swift movement. No excuse me, no good morning, no offer to pick up the papers the papers(Goodfellas reference) Now at this point, I'm so tired, all I can muster is a "What the f**k?" as he walks out of the door, so I'm mad at myself for that. Then the internal questions started..Does he not just not like me? Is he cranky? Is he crazy? Is he a just a great big fat person?

Right or wrong, tomorrow when I come in from swimming, his paper WILL come up missing. This is war.

Another Day - 4hero featuring Jill Scott

3 comments:

Neil MacLean said...

Did he thought you were stealing them? I have problems with people in my building too, usually a certain type of person. The older, single cranky-as-hell, hate everyone types.

rashad said...

I think he did think some theft was about to go down...either way a little tact was in order

£ said...

lol @ "nicest guy ever made"

Dude was a total jerk for that but you better leave that man's paper alone...people is crazy these days.