Tales from the Crypt

Here is the latest news from our home in the ghetto. No seriously, I'm not using that term loosely. We really are in the ghetto and I can prove it.






1. Penelope and Fitzgerald hated this apartment when we first moved here. They would meow constantly and run out the door the minute it opened. They were used to having a doggy door where they could go outside anytime they wanted and they just had room to roam. So, since the closing on our house has STILL not taken place, we decided to move the cats back to the house and just leave the back door open so they could go outside to the backyard. We would go by the house everyday and check on them but last Thursday, Penelope was not there when Ben stopped by. Long story short we freak out because no one had actually been to the house since the morning before and it was now 6:00 in the evening on the next day. If you know Penelope, you know she does not leave the yard. She never goes far when she goes outside and will always come back when one of us shows up. Ben, who is the king of printing up flyers for lost cats (The one of Fitz, shown above, is from a few years ago when he went missing in Dallas), prints some up at LeRoy's house and then we distribute them around the neighborhood. I am crying and generally freaking out when we decide to go a block over and start knocking on doors there. The second house we come to has black plastic bags on the windows and we decide they would not have picked up our cat. As we walk by the house, Ben stops. A car passed by and he says, "I think I heard something but that car passed by so I'm not sure." We call out Penelope's name and we hear something again. We ring the doorbell 5 times over and over again and hear Penelope freaking out crying and screaming at this point but we can't find her. The lady at the house finally decides to open the hood of her car and there is Penelope sitting on the engine, trapped. She was scared and filthy and when I picked her up off the hood, she melted into my arms. Needless to say, the cats are back with us in the ghetto.


2. The same night we are in bed asleep and all of a sudden we hear a loud knock on our neighbor's door. I look (more like squint since I am seriously blind without contacts) at the clock and it's 3:00 a.m. We continue to hear knocking and then voices. All of a sudden, there is a knock at our door. Ben gets up and goes to the door and says "Who is it?" The guy says "It's Brennan." Ben goes "Who is that?" And the guy responds "I'm Moe's friend." Ben says "You have the wrong apartment." and the guys goes away. Now, I watch a lot of A&E so I pretty much stay consumed with The First 48, Cold Case Files, American Justice, basically all those shows where people are living their everyday lives and then they are tragically murdered. So, of course, my first thought is "He wants to murder us!" The next day, I am talking to my friend, Amanda, and telling her about this and she says she thinks the guy was looking for a drug dealer. I think, wow, that's a good idea. Makes more sense then the whole murder plot. I tell Ben about this and he says that was what he thought the guy wanted. I guess I'm the only paranoid one.

3. I was standing outside with Eleanor, talking to one of my service providers for a client, when I see two detectives walk by and go three doors down. A couple of hours later, I see a cop in uniform go to the same guys house.

4. I meet my neighbor next door. He says his name is Mike but he goes by "coach." He says he is glad we are living in this apartment because he has had issues with drug dealers living in this apartment in the past year. He said he told management but they just told him to call the cops (so glad management is worried about their renters). This story also told me that the guy from 3:00 in the morning was, indeed, looking for drugs. Coach also told me that the guy at the end (where the cops frequented today) hates cats and has threatened to kill all the cats if they step foot on his porch. Oh yeah, and Coach told me this all while holding a 6 pack of Amstel Light and a gallon plastic jug of Vodka. I'm just saying.

5. The guy who lives in between "Coach" and the cat killer has skulls hanging from the tree in front of his apartment, above the door, and on the screen door.


6. The "Cat Killer" is apparently some old guy in a motorized wheelchair who likes to wheel and smoke at the same time. He will get that wheelchair going as fast as he can in order to get it up a very small hill next to the steps people with legs use in order to get to the parking lot. He will drag big branches and leaves under that motorized wheelchair as he goes up that hill and doesn't even care. When he goes down the hill, his wheelchair will kind of make a 180 degree turn. I don't really know why. I just know that is what I saw this afternoon.

7. I just saw a roach crawl across the floor.


We are in the process of getting our approval for a mortgage in Abilene. We found a house that we LOVE and hope to put an offer on it tomorrow. As of Saturday, I have a great job and will be moving back to Abilene end of March to start my job April 1. It is basically the same job I have now working with people with developmental disabilities. I am VERY excited about this agency and look forward to getting started. Ben will finish his last class April 29 so he will move out then. It's sad to think about my time here in GA as being over but on to a new chapter. And a new place to live...