I was standing behind my kids’  elementary school, watching my daughter play on the monkey bars, when a neighbor friend suddenly marched up to me.  “I need to talk to you, Delaine,” she said seriously.

“Sure,” I said concerned; I could tell something was wrong.  “What’s up Lori?”

“My back is up and I’m feeling very territorial,” she said angrily.  Then she started talking about some episode that had transpired at my house that I couldn’t remember.  I stood there confused wondering, Where is she going with this?

Then she started talking about a time I had ‘deliberately ignored her.’  Still confused, all I could say was, “If I ignored you Lori, it wasn’t intentional – I’m pretty out to lunch, that’s just me!”

Then she was talking about some time I had told her not to give my kids ice cream, and yet later, she’d seen them eating ice cream from an ice cream truck.  I said:  “Ummm… the nighbours up the street bought them the cones when I was in the house.”  What the heck is her point? I wondered.

Well I soon found out.  She thought I was deliberately being mean to her because underneath all my ‘neighborly actions’, I was after her husband!

“You’re kidding right?”  I asked, my mouth agape.

Nope, she sure wasn’t.  And she made it VERY clear that I was to BACK OFF, that she was on to me, and she would fight me tooth and nail to save her family.

I was so shocked at the entire eposide, that it took me awhile to recover.  Sure, her husband and I talked, but only in a friendly way; our kids play together all the time and go back and forth between our houses.  I’d NEVER even remotely flirted with him and had been very respectful of the fact that he was married.  And truthfully – I thought him very physically unattractive!  (I should have told her that and yet it seemed too rude!)

I know that this ‘confrontation’ had everything to do with her shit, not mine.  Nonetheless, it got to me, and saddened me.  Deserved or not, I guess my being the ’divorcee’ on the block means people will judge me and wag their tongues.

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