Today the entire issue of me watching my neighbor's dog for two weeks came to a close.  I hemmed and hawed and thought that by saying no I'd be overreacting to a normal situation.  Or that I'd be excluded in some way or be punished in some way.  Though mostly, I thought I'd be letting everyone down.  That I had no real right to say no.  But then I realized that by saying yes, I'd be setting a precedent to allow my neighbor to keep asking me more and more and more inappropriate things of me.  So I put together my text message and just stared at it.  If I sent it, there was no going back.  And I reached down and hit send anyways.  

The reason I did it was because the other next-door neighbor who's supposedly doing this with me called me and left a message stating "Shay, call me back, I want to hear if you're still going to help out with the dog when I am at work..."  And here is the issue: this neighbor is a bit younger than me, but she already told me "L is going to have me water all the plants and do all this extra work, but I don't care about any of that shit, I just want to swim in their pool!"  Which tells me that she's going to putting off all the "chores" that L wants done on me, which I am not down with.  This girl has also hit me up for narcotics and then told me how her and her BFF are going in "halfsies" on something like $500 worth of norcos together (which is something you tell your neighbor, right?).  And L, the lady with the with dog, told me she's not reliable, which is why she wanted me to help out.  

Yet, L hasn't messaged me since.  She hasn't told me the date or even talked to me since about it.  She's the type of person who asks once, and then expects you to remember everything (which is why I forgot to go over last time to walk her dog).  So, when this other lady called me, I texted L and told her I couldn't do it.  That way she could decide whether or not to have the other neighbor do it at all.  Well, she is, as I heard them laughing in L's backyard right after I got home as she explained to her all the stuff she's supposed to do be doing.  

So, here was my excuse: "Sorry, my doc says I need foot surgery and I am in too much pain to help out with your dog for those two weeks.  I am so sorry."   Which wasn't a lie in the least.  I do need foot surgery.  And I am in excruciating pain in my foot most days.  Even though it's the other foot that's in pain, not the one that needs surgery (though that one can hurt too, just not every single day).  Also, twice now I've had horrible migraines when I've had to watch her dog, including the last time I did it.  So, I don't want to do it anymore.  Like, at all.  Especially after they "paid me back" last time by mowing the smallest strip of my entire yard.  I mean, it wasn't a big deal, but at the same time, it was odd and weird.  

So L's response to my message was "I hope you feel better soon."  That's it.  It was, again, so odd.  But at the same time, she's old and maybe doesn't text much?  I don't know.  But I am pretty sure she's a total narcissist.  Because when she was talking to us about this the one and only time a few weeks ago, she told us that her sister-in-law asked for her help in watching her (her SIL's) grandkids, whom they raise, while L was visiting them.  And she literally told her no, that she has already "raised her kids", which I guess means she's done babysitting for the rest of her life?  Well, I don't want to baby sit her dog, as I am still in the middle of raising my dogs.  Seriously, what a kind of a strange response was that?  Just say "I don't like children and don't know what to do with them" instead.  What does raising your kids have to do with babysitting?  Or just say "Sorry, I am on vacation, I don't really want to babysit".  Which would be fair as a response.  Whatever her reasoning was for saying what she did, I didn't like it.  I love kids.  And while I wouldn't want to babysit, I sure as hell wouldn't be averse to being around kids since I'd already raised mine, because kids are awesome.  

Anyways, I made up a partial lie.  I mean, it wasn't a lie, it was 100% the truth, but it's not why I don't want to do it.  I don't want to do it because it was wrong of her to ask me.  Now, in the future, I know not to say yes to something like this.  Instead, I will say "I will have to see", as I know I will not say "no" right off the bat.  But that way I can figure out how I feel about it and say "no" later. 

Okay, well, that was that.  We'll see if either one of them get angry at me for this or say something rude or maybe they'll just be nice about it or forget about it completely?  Who knows, and who cares, right?  

At least it's done and over with now.  For now.  Until they ask me to do something else stupid.