This may be one of my top acts of passive-aggressive behavior, but one that I am proud of. The reason I’m proud is that a couple of months ago when I found that Ms. Mess doesn’t keep her FB profile hidden, I got to go back months and months and see that a Facebook status had actually been made about my passive-aggressive act. Success!
Here’s the scenario.
In April of 2009 we would have already been in the apartment for eight months. The welcome wagon had long left the trail and our disgust for the messes had already begun. It was bad enough that we were having to move scooters out of the way in order to get in the front door and get out of our cars to kick soccer balls, dolls and super soakers out of the driveway so we could get our cars in the garage. But since they were kids we would just roll our eyes, scoff, and move the items until the next time we’d come home to find the same disrespectful scene. Remember, the messes seem to feel they own the house, lawn, basement, backyard, garage, and right to be idiots.
So back to the blue tape.
In the three-car garage you’ll find our cars on the side with the double door and on their side with the single-door you’ll find the hybrid, plus the scattering the bikes (if they made it in from the front yard that night). Now at the time of this incident I still had my Murano, and while it was going on 5-years-old, was still scratch and dent free and still taken good care of. I parked on the side closest to the messes’ belongings, which meant that every day when I came home I would have to squeeze out of my car because my door wasn’t able to open far enough without pushing into something sitting in the way.
This was bad enough.
So you can imagine my outrage when I come out to leave for work on this one particular morning to find two of THEIR bikes leaned up against the side of MY car. I – was – ticked. So I put my bag in the car, shoved the bikes onto their side, and went inside and got a roll of blue painter’s tape and used that tape to make the outline of a large rectangle with a gigantic “X” through it where my car doors would open up into. Apparently respecting other people’s property was a lesson the messes forgot to teach their little messes so I, obviously, had to be fairly explicit in where their bikes should not be parked … or leaned.
While this maybe was a bit of a jerk move on my part, we’d already had it with them at this point, and pulling in the garage every day to see the blue-outlined box sitting empty left me with just a little bit of self-satisfaction. Actually, a lot.
And then over a year later I find the post—which makes it all the more satisfying:
(...and it's painter's tape, not electrical tape)
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Tags: bikes, facebook, garage, hybrid, scooters, wall posts, yard, Yard of Distinction
My name is Nate. I lived in the upper level of a cute little duplex in Milwaukee. It wasn't long after moving in that we came to realize we'd moved in above a mess of a family, who while not destructive or scary, are some of the most bazaar people you could ever come across.
Nate.P.K.
