Our New Neighbor

Dan and I live in a townhouse, so our neighbors are pretty close by. This is not always a good thing. We had these neighbors, living right next door to us, and we became friends with them. They left a couple of months ago. Now, there's this new couple living there with their young son, and the woman, I have heard, is pregnant, and very nice. I heard this from my friend who has moved out, and was told that by her mother, who had met her at the settlement, since the house was owned by my friend's parents. Was that a run-on sentence?

Anyway, I had been planning on knocking on the door and introducing myself, with freshly baked cookies for these new neighbors around the holidays. I never got to bake much b/c I wasn't feeling well around then. Then, people get busy, yadda yadda, I never had the opportunity to do it. So, last week, I was looking out my front window on the 1st floor, and I noticed a handful of cigarette butts strewn about my front lawn. I was thinking that maybe it had been windy, and that some of them just blew over to our lawn from next-door. I was upstairs later that day, and again looked out the window. I saw about twenty or so butts, all around my front bushes, our tree, and even on the edge of my driveway. I am so disgusted by this, and this is NOT how I wanted to start off getting to know my neighbors. I told Dan, and he got pissed, and we were thinking about how to handle the situation. The thing that's really strange, is that he's got a fenced in back yard, with a door and everything, that he could go to to smoke. It's like he's just trying to start shit!

Now, I don't like to give people the impression that I am a bitch, but I also don't like to be thought of as a pushover. I have had people take advantage of me far too much. Part of me just wants to pick up every butt and put them in a baggie, and leave them in his mailbox or on his front step, with a little note attached that says, "I believe these are yours." I don't have the nerve to do this, though. But I think I'd enjoy it. The day after I found all these butts, I finally caught a glimpse of this smoking slob. I was on my way out to meet a friend, and saw he was out front, smoking, of course, and I said, "Hi!" He glanced over to me and I said,"How you doin'?" To which he just said, "Fine." He didn't seem all that interested in getting to know me. When I returned home a couple of hours later, he was again outside, smoking and this time drinking a beer (I don't know what else he does during the day). He didn't even look in my direction. So screw him! I realise that I don't need to be friends with everyone. It just would be nice if people were a bit friendlier when they have to live right on top of one another. And it would be even nicer if they didn't try to make my property, however small, look like we live in the slums. And I have noticed that there's not a single cigarette butt on his property, which is odd. He's just flicking them in my direction on purpose? I just helped him out with that problem. While bringing in my groceries, I threw about fifteen or so butts back onto his front walk. That'll teach him! I wonder if this will make the situation better or worse. Wow! I can't wait until we own our own single home, far away from this bullshit!