kristy, are you doing okay?

see the problem with reading so much and having an overactive imagination is that, well... you have an overactive imagination and millions of stories to feed it.

you probably know by now that i live in an apartment (that i simultaneously love and hate with all my heart). you may or may not know that i live on the top floor and therefore do not have to deal with things like heavy-footed dancing elephant owners marching on my head day in and day out, which is good because the thin walls/floors/whatever is a common complaint i hear about the apartments i live in. the only time i was really, seriously annoyed by it, though, was when my neighbor bought a new puppy and it barked all. day. long. and all night, too. but i digress. occasionally, i will hear banging from the apartment below us. i never pay any attention to it and rarely even notice it anymore, but the other night i did.

i had just finished my nightly ritual of checking on my clan and playing candy crush when i heard banging, like someone hammering a nail into the wall or knocking really loudly. my mind immediately supplied me with the scene from room (if you haven't read this, then i highly recommend it) where the kidnapped lady and her son stand on her bed and scream at the top of their lungs (the kid thinks it's a game) to try and get someone to notice and rescue them. she also used to turn the lights on and off in the middle of the night to try and get attention. suddenly, i was sure that there was someone trapped in the apartment below me. of course, you can't really do much when all your evidence of a wrongdoing is that it kindasortamaybe reminds you of something that happened in a book. (and that got me to thinking about all the times that people do normal things as a cry for help that are ignored because, well, you're not just going to try and get every person you see arrested on the off-chance that something bad is going on.)

around thanksgiving, there was a watermelon with a small triangle cut out of it left outside of the door of this same apartment. for a month. it was really, really weird. and because i am kind of a creeper, here is a picture of it (cropped in case there are potential stalkers reading this):

it was just there. day after day, week after week. and then one day, it wasn't. 

after the bang in the night that set off my imagination, i realized that there must have been a message for help hidden in there and the kidnapper realized that and took it away i totally missed my chance to save my neighbor and/or her victim. (except, i really didn't miss anything. i peeked into that watermelon as i passed it every single day and watched as it slowly rotted and bugs started to live in it.)

anyway.

neighbor, if you'reading this, i'm sorry i'm creepy and took a picture of your watermelon, but you have to understand, it was really weird. (i also have one taken three weeks after this. i'm sorry for that one too.) i'm also sorry if you are being held captive and i am blogging about it instead of helping. 

kidnapper (hopefully you are not my neighbor because if you are then you put on a very friendly and considerate facade and you are actually my favorite in the building and i'd hate for my favorite neighbor to be evil), if you are reading this then you should know that i'm totally on to you. also, you make really bad choices in places to keep your victims. thin walls, dude. unless you chose this place precisely for that reason because you know that people will just write off any weird noises to normal life. in which case, you're really smart and kinda scary. 

readers, i haven't slept in a while (which is why i'm choosing to stick with that line for the title even though i'm sure another line in the song could be better. i'm just too lazy to google the lyrics and this popped in my head, and well, there you have it). we (my husband and i) are thinking of buying and moving to our first house and good god is this stressful. (i'm probably making it even more stressful than it has to be because that is what i do.) i was doing really well with the blogging regularly thing for a while, too. i was going to write an entire post about this whole house thing, but then i decided not to. this little note is the compromise. 

*Kristy, Are You Doing Okay? - The Offspring

living is easy with eyes closed

the nigerian prince zawababafufunene has 36 million dollars that he is waiting to put in YOUR bank account!

sound familiar??

i think almost everyone has seen some variety of this scam. the person changes, the amount of money changes, but the idea is always the same. i want to give you a bunch of money but you have to pay me and give me access to your bank account first. and in the face of 36 million dollars, what's two thousand?? at least that's what is probably going through the minds of all the people that fall for this.

my grandmother fell for a similar scam recently... or would have if my mom hadnt stepped in with the harsh voice of reality. a bunch of my cousins were also a hair away from falling for it and got pretty far in the communicating back and forth before they began to see some fishiness in the scheme.

maybe i'm just a really cynical pessimist and ready to see the worst in every situation, but i could never understand how anyone could believe in this. someone you have never met has millions of dollars and wants to give it all to you? practically for free? i mean, really?

life must be great when you can close your eyes to everything that makes me doubt that scenario. when you can trust the goodness and generosity of people to that degree. when you believe that there are people out there that want nothing more than to share their great fortunes with you. when life is like the tv movie of the week.

*Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles

and it's all in my head

swine flu is only step away from being declared a pandemic and has everyone in the world completely freaked out. i got a cold a couple of days ago and while i really wish it would go away, i'm fairly certain that i am not dying of swine flu. my mom on the other hand... not so certain. the fact that the odds of me being the first person to get swine flu in the DC area are so close to zero they are practically nonexistent doesntt seem to register with her. i'm not saying that the disease isnt serious and stuff, i just think people should calm down. the paranoia is getting a little out of control.

my brother has allergies - always has - but the nurse at his school called an emergency assembly to warn the students about swine flu and suddenly he's convinced that he has swine flu. my dad told him that until he starts to get a pig's tail and nose, he shouldnt worry about it... so he's been checking often for the tail to show up.

maybe it's not the best topic to joke about, but really, everyone who sneezes now is automatically thought to be infected. if you get it you get it people, not much we can do about it.

*Mr. Brightside - The Killers

paranoia is haunting you

being an IT major has made me paranoid. seriously. learning how easy it is to hack into a system, spoof an account, steal an identity, stalk... it's made me very paranoid about what i do on computers. for example, my credit card was declined today at chik-fil-a. why?? i have no idea. i used it last night and it worked fine. i'm sure there's money in the account. it isn't expired, hasn't been exposed to magnets. it just wouldnt work. i wanted to check my account, but i didnt have joe with me and was too paranoid to use the library's. yes, i know the library computers are pretty safe since no one can download anything onto them and there was no one around to look over my shoulder to steal my account information. but i kept hearing my professors' voices in my head, and i couldnt do it.

*The Dutch Courage - The Spill Canvas