Every week, I challenge myself to a Monday Dare. You can click on the link if you’d like to see the full list of Monday Dares or learn more about its origin.

This week: I don’t even know. 

I’m sorry. I’m so depressed today; I can’t even think straight. I’m blaming it on the cocktail of medications.  I feel like crying, laughing, and busting a cap in someone’s ass all at the same time.

HOW DO PEOPLE TAKE STEROIDS without losing their everloving mind?

At dinner last night, I cried into my spaghetti in front of Cal and Harv. Like I just…I just laid my head down on the glass table and fucking bawled like a little bitch. I didn’t even have the decency to excuse myself and do it privately. I am so ashamed and embarrassed.

I can’t pinpoint exactly what it was that set me off, but I think it has something to do with Saturday night.   My endlessly fascinating and wonderful friend, Jessica, drove in from Las Vegas to keep me company since I had been cooped up inside all week long.

She convinced me that *YES* even if I was swollen and feeling like a crack whore, we should get dressed up and go out to a Halloween party. So we did.

And guess what? I bumped into a few male friends I haven’t seen in a long, long time. Every single one of them wanted to know if Harv “let me out of the house” or was okay with me having a night out on the town or if Harv knew I was out at all.

As offended as I was, I laughed a little and made a joke about how Harv does occasionally let me out of my cage, and he really only whips me when I don’t do the floors right the first time.

I hate the double standard. When we see a married man out, do we ask these questions? I don’t. People are just people to me. Sure, some of them are married or single or boring or awesome or mothers or fathers or bastards, but I don’t assume someone gets to be somewhere or is allowed to do something because of a title or label. Are mothers and wives not supposed to go out? Is that inappropriate? I hate that I care, but my fear is that no matter what I do or how much I accomplish, I’ll only be seen as Harv’s wife or Cal’s mother because there isn’t any room to be viewed as anything else.

Anyway, no funnies here today. I have to go cry now.

P.S. I’m posting a picture from Saturday evening later today on the Flourish in Progress Facebook page. I’m supposed to be a maid in case you can’t tell. I tried.
image via Beth Dobbs of Wildemoon Art 

I’m getting off track.

That was my long-winded way of asking if you have neighbors. And if you like your neighbors. Maybe you don’t know your neighbors. That’s okay too.

I’m afraid to bump into my neighbor, Sheila. My low self-esteem can’t handle it. We moved in within a month of each other. Actually, we were both vying for the home I live in now. I won. I did a little jig, bought some paint, and went to town. It was only a short-lived victory because Sheila ended up moving in next door. So really, I lost more than I won.

This Jesus, he really knows how to slide in those life lessons, doesn’t he?

I’ve invited Sheila over a few times.

First visit: Well, you certainly have a talent for using beige in so many different ways. It’s….admirable. 

Second visit: Did you cook this yourself? It looks like something I saw in the prepared deli case at the grocery store.

Third visit: I stopped by her place on this occasion. Sheila had just given birth to the world’s most accomplished and self-actualized baby, and she really thought it might enrich my life to be in his presence for a few minutes. I was there to witness his jagged little fingernails piercing his delicate eyeballs and screaming at the top of his lungs. What saddens me most is that he was probably doing his best to convey hope and inspiration in an obscure language, and I missed it. Fuck, why do I always miss the good stuff?

It was hard shopping for this little wonder. I finally settled on a “Party in my Crib” onsie with a handsome sweater. She rifled through the box, then tossed it aside. No “thank you.” No polite giggle.

We haven’t seen each other since. I’d like to try one more time. It’ll just make me feel better when I egg her house for Halloween next week.

Neighbors? You got ’em? You like ’em? You hate ’em?
image via blueq.com