My Passive Agressive Nature

Between a temperamental A/C (its been out twice more since the last post), a big snafu at the office, and a really overwhelming feeling of missing my family this week (I get like this when they are all in the same spot and I’m not there…made worse by the fact that they are in Hawaii and I’m in Hotson.) you’d think I have enough on my plate to not let something little get under my skin.

You’d be Wrong.

One of my new neighbors has college aged children who are home for the summer. And they are popular. I know this because they have a constant stream of SUV’s parked at their house. Only, they aren’t parked at their house. They are parked at my house. Always. Its not like there are 5 cars at any given time, and they are using the area in front of my house as overflow parking. Rather, its always one or two cars, and they insist on parking in front of my house, despite the fact that there are 30 yards of perfectly good, unused, curb space in front of the house they are visiting. For a while, I thought I was being irrational. I mean, does it really matter where they park? But the more I think about it, the more it needles at me. I mean, if they would just pull up a few feet, they would be in front of the correct house, but they refuse to do this. And its not just every once in a while. It's every day. Evvvverrrrryyy.

As much as it annoys me, it drives the HSH even crazier. He came home the other day and we had some visitors in our driveway, so he wanted to park in the street. Only he couldn’t because our neighbor’s guests had monopolized the space in front of our house. It wasn’t a big deal because the HSH just had to drive a few feet further down and park in front of their house, but that just made it worse to him! I mean, why couldn’t THEY park there, and leave our curb to us and OUR guests? I thought his head was going to pop off his neck.

So this all begs the question: What do we do about it? I know the mature thing to do is just say something to them. Find some way to politely ask them to please pull forward. But the thing is, I don’t know how to phrase it without sounding like a total bitch. The Rice2029 crew are firm proponents of the direct method (as our new neighbors, they have been monitoring the situation closely). Even little Emily is confused by the situation, asking me last time she was there "Is that your car Posies?" Jason (who also lives in the neighborhood and has noticed/commented on the situation) thinks I should leave a note. He is only saying this though so he can take a picture for one of our favorite websites. Other suggested solutions range from the mildly passive aggressive (parking there myself and hope they get the hint) to the downright hostile (I’m sure you can imagine). And trust me, everyone has a suggestion because everyone who has been to our house has noticed, and thinks its unusual. So its not just me, if you were wondering. I'm not sure what to do! I don't want to get off on the wrong foot with my new neighbors, especially since they seem super nice in every other regard, but this is really driving me batty!

So what do you guys think? Should I say something? Should I just suffer in silence (yes, this is my version of silence) and hope the problem fixes itself eventually? Should I start leaving nails and glass in the gutter in the middle of the night? Guide me wise ones. (And no, the nails/glass thing is not really on the table as an eligible solution.)


And just because I haven’t had pictures in my posts lately, and everyone knows what a drag that is, here is a cute one of Rip. He always parks his car in front of the correct house.