Pet Peeve #1: Neigborhood gossips

I've decided I'm going to do a running series with my pet peeves. I was thinking about a friend of mine who used to have a family MSN group, and one of the pages was her "soap box." Before she decided to delete the group, she had some funny essays about some of the things that really got her goat, specifically in the area she's living in.

Today's topic: neighborhood gossips.

And no, I don't mean the kind that sit there and tell you "guess what so-and-so told me yesterday?" That's bad enough, but at least they're relaying first-hand information.

I'm talking about the kind that simply want to start trouble and start spreading COMPLETELY FALSE rumors about other people.

We have one of those on our block. I swear, this woman has only 3 items of clothing. Every single day, she wears the same denim skirt. She's lived in the area for over a year, and only ONCE have I seen her wear a pair of pants (trousers). I nearly fell over in a faint when I saw her. Something tells me that the way she dressed should have told me something about the kind of woman she is.

But back when she first moved in, everything was fine. She and her husband (? - I'm not sure if they're even married, not a lot of people here in the UK even bother getting married anymore) would come down to our end of the street and sit and just talk with myself and my next-door neighbor and her family (her kids are all older teens).

And when another family moved in across the street from me, it was all of us out there until way past dark, just talking and basically having a good time doing nothing together (not to mention our kids would all play together).

But as time went on, this woman (who will remain nameless) started acting really weird. First she wouldn't talk to the woman across the street because she wanted my next door neighbor to come and visit HER instead. Eventually it came out that this woman wanted my next door neighbor to be her friend... ONLY. She wasn't allowed to have any other friends, other than herself.

Then she started telling people that my next-door neighbor sat outside drinking from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. every day. Which is a crock of total bull$#!t. SOMETIMES we drink outside, but it's ALL of us, not just my next-door neighbor. And for another thing, this woman has 4 children and 2 grandchildren - not to mention her own boyfriend - to deal with (and various boyfriends/girlfriends/friends of her kids'). She doesn't have the TIME to be sitting outside doing nothing but drink all freaking day long.

And then there's the plain ole LOGIC of the whole thing... if my next-door neighbor really WAS sitting out there drinking 16 hours a day... would anybody in their right mind actually BELIEVE that she'd be able to function after only 8 hours of sleep??? Come ON! My father was an alcoholic, and I have to admit to going through a major drinking phase of my own when I was younger (and newly legal - I think a lot of young people go through a phase like that), and I know DAMNED well that 8 hours of sleep after a big drinking binge is just NOT enough.

And it hasn't stopped. She keeps spreading malicious lies about the very people she claimed she wanted as friends. Mostly my next-door neighbor, but she's done it to me as well.

The latest round of lies was about both of us. She claimed (to HER next-door neighbor, whose kids my youngest 2 are friends with) that all 4 of my kids (and my oldest is autistic, remember), and my neighbor's 18-month old grandson were all out playing in the street at 5 AM!!!!

Puh-LEEZE.

For one thing, since I started letting the kids play outside, they're not even up at that hour (anymore). For another, there's no way in hell I - or her SISTERS, for that matter - would allow Syrina (my oldest) outside without ADULT supervision. She would run off and get lost. She HAS run off before (when some idiot came into my house and left the front door open), and it was only by the Grace of God that one of my other neighbors happened to be coming home at the same time and caught her.

Thankfully - and quite funnily, I thought - the people she was telling this bull$#!t to knew better than to listen to her lies and told her point-blank that there was no way I'd let my kids out at that hour. My kids come in the house before their kids. They let their kids play out until WAY later than I ever would (just last week we came home from my neighbor's son's 18th birthday party at something like 11:30 p.m. and they were still out there). Hell, they've let their youngest - who just turned 3 two weeks ago - play outside BY HERSELF from the time she could walk. (Of course, they have 4 other kids to watch over her as well, but that's just something I would NEVER do.)

The worst part about this woman who spreads all the lies is that she's soooo sickly sweet to your face. She always smiles at me when she talks to me and is just soooo nice. But then I find out (from reliable sources, mind you) that she's spreading lies about me. And I haven't done anything to her. I have my own opinion of her, and granted, it's not very high. But it's MY opinion, so I keep it to MYSELF.

One of these days, this woman is going to get popped right in the mouth. And I'd be willing to bet money that she's not going to have a single clue as to why she's being treated that way.

But you know what? I'd secretly pay money to get to see it myself. Hell, if I weren't the type to want to keep the peace just for peace's sake, I'd love to BE the on to punch her right in her face.

It'd be sooooooooo satisfying!