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August 01, 2005

Neighborhood Woes, Pt. II: It's All Wendy's Fault

The recent spate of neighbor problems shouldn't surprise me, and Saturday morning I realize what, exactly was causing the problem: my cousin Wendy was coming for a weekend visit. You see, everytime Wendy visits, something happens. I don't know if there's something about her aura that sets my neighborhood into a state of unbalance, or if my neighbors just want to impress her. Either way, when Wendy's here, weird shit follows.

In July, 2000, Wendy's car was robbed during a visit. The thieves got away with 100 fine CDs that included New Kids on the Block, Ricky Martin, and a choice MC Hammer/Vanilla Ice combo greatest hits collection, purchased in a gas station in rural Kansas. But don't worry - the insurance settlement allowed Wendy to obtain another copy of this rare gem.

Last September, Wendy was in for a treat - standing on my front porch, watching the victim of a beer bottle smash to the head being carted away in an ambulence while police aprehended my shirtless (of course) neighbor who, apparently, was wielding the bottle.

This time, the festivites started a few hours before Wendy's Saturday morning arrival.

Friday night, the thumping bass was back, this time audible in the back of our house at 12:30 PM. After several calls to the cops, who did nothing, B. got out of bed, put on some pants, and went to crack some skulls politely ask the neighbors to cut it out.

Much to his surprise, the noise wasn't coming from The Suicide House. This time, it was coming from The Dunebuggy House.

The Dunebuggy House sits at the end of our street. The owners, who are grandparents, have a large garage where dunebuggies are built 24 hours a day/7 days a week, so important is the dune buggy to modern life in a midwestern duneless city. I'm not sure how the owner manages his hectic, all-night dunebuggy-building schedule. I think it's by consuming a steady diet of Aldi's store-brand cola and methamphetamine.

When the owner saw B. approaching the garage, where the music - described by B. as simply, "metal" - he knew what the problem was. And he informed B. that we would have to take it up with the local cops because, as he put it, as long as he can here the football games from the high school one mile up the road, he's legally allowed to play his music as loud as he wants, as late as he wants.

I know. I don't follow that logic, either. All I know is, that's the most assholish logic I have ever heard in my life.

I got five blissfully restorative hours of sleep, because we all know the sleep of the enraged is the most restful of all sleep. Wait, no, it isn't. It's about the same as getting no damn sleep at all. Especially when I awoke at 8 AM the following morning with yet more music blasting outside my house.

I guess my next-door neighbor is feeling a bit left out. The neighbors across the street have the sweet ride with a speakerbox that can shake houses halfway down the block, and his neighbors to the west are legally allowed to blast their Molly Hatchet into the wee hours from their rockin' stereo system. But it's just sad to see him, in his driveway with the doors flung open on his tiny blue Cavalier, local radio ads blasting but not quite loud enough to cover the ding-ding-ding of the open car doors.

But just because it's a little sad doesn't mean I don't want to park my truck in the area of the street that connects these three houses and blast a little (or a lot of) Sex Pistols at, oh, five AM. I'm sure that's within my legal rights, right?

With all the neighbor misbehavior, I was a smidge worried about having company on Saturday night. Then I remembered that the company was Kara, Angie and Holley, who enjoy spectacle just as much as Wendy, B. and me.

While we were consuming our nachos - and I must say, they were really good nachos, as the lone toilet in my house has overflowed twice today - Angie happened to look out the living room window. "You're neighbor, she's wearing these really tight ... jodhpurs ... or something. My God! These are the tightest pants I've ever seen!"

And with that we all crowded around the window and saw this staring back at us:


It's a damn good thing none of the neighbors had their music cranked up, because the seismic waves would have blown those stressed-out pants - are they even pants, or are they possibly Underalls with a shirt tucked into them? - right off her body, so pushed to the breaking point was this fabric.

My neighbor didn't notice the crowd of six faces mashed against the window, nor did she hear the howels of hysterical laughter coming from our open front door. If she did, it didn't deter her from continuing her yardwork. Here, she organizes her carport:


And here she really tests the strength and durability of her tight, tight pants:


It takes a courageous woman to wear pants so tight that they create not one, not two, but three - three cameltoes in public. But to wear those pants and BEND OVER??? Sweet Jesus, this is a new level of bravery, one that I will hopefully never, ever know personally. Because really, I don't want a bunch of nacho-eaters to know my genitals that personally.

The photos are of poor quality, I know. For one, Wendy was trying to be stealthy while she took them, lest my neighbor become enraged and bust out of those pants, Incredible Hulk-style. But also because, well, it's really hard to take a decent photo when you're laughing so hard you can't stand.

Since these pants left absolutely nothing to the imagination - not the shape and terrain of buttocks, external genitalia, or equally abuse wedgied underpants, we have dubbed this look the 360-Degree Cameltoe.

When we move - and oh, we will be moving - Wendy is not invited to our new house. Ever.

Posted by Robin at August 1, 2005 12:14 AM

Comments

Good Lord! Them's some pants. And many laughs were generated by the Aldi's reference.

Posted by: Liz at August 1, 2005 07:46 AM

OMG! SO funny. Please don't move to IL.

Posted by: Jane at August 1, 2005 09:37 AM

Between the 360-degree cameltoe, the Aldi's cola blast, Molly Hatchet and JODHPURS--who the hell calls them jodhpurs anymore?--I have Diet Coke spittle on my monitor and sore stomach muscles.

Posted by: Joe Greenlight at August 1, 2005 01:33 PM

see, i knew you'd do better with it. :) too bad there's no pics of her doing those lunges...

Posted by: kara at August 1, 2005 06:31 PM

okay is it just me but had she been white would we have wondered if she forgot her pants and was shaved clean as a baby....

Posted by: mindy at August 1, 2005 10:35 PM

Oh my gosh, that's hilarious! I can't believe you guys took pictures... but it's probably a good thing that they're blurry. :) Thanks for a good laugh.

Posted by: Julie Han at August 2, 2005 04:06 AM

Thank you, Poppy! I've been so stressed out lately trying to think of the most horrendous, hoosieresque outfit to wear to my friend's upcoming "Hoosier BBQ" to try to win the cash prize. Thank you so much for posting! Now I just have to find flesh-colored pants that give me 3 (you said 3, right?) camel toes.

Posted by: Michelle at August 2, 2005 11:41 AM

I came over from Angela's site when she put up the link. Your ordeals hit so close to home I figured I'd share.
I'd been having similar issues at my place in Omaha, what with the stereos and the skanky neighbors and the calling of the noise complaints to the uncaring police department. I found out later that the place next door was busted last year as a huge crack house, so I am sure they weren't going to bother showing up for anything less than another career making bust.
I am now here in a very quiet part of Missouri and loving it. I just need to find a place a bit closer to Da Lou so I can have fun, and fancy coffee.

Posted by: Jack's Raging Mommy at August 2, 2005 09:02 PM

whats a hoosier bbq?

Posted by: jeanna at August 7, 2005 01:14 AM

This reminds me of one of the chief when-tragic-turns-comic moments in my life. S. had just miscarried again, after three months of love-filled, breath-holding anticipation. We were broken, and our house held no oxygen, so we went to see Jeff, hang out in his bad-part-of-town apartment, let him serve as a buffer against the deafening silence.

His upstairs redneck neighbor, a shaved lightbulb of a head on a stick body and with huge black glasses, or "Buddy Stipe," as we called him, was packing the family truckster for a trip to, I presume, something having to do with wrestling. All three of us, after an afternoon of crying, had gathered at the window to spy, and Buddy Stipe bent over, revealing the EMBROIDERED TEDDY BEARS on the ass of his sweat pants.

Despite himself, Jeff exclaimed "He's got bears on his ass!" and we collapsed on the floor laughing.

TeddyBearAss versus 360CamelToe--only one can be victorious...

Posted by: robert at November 4, 2005 07:36 AM