The Lady Downstairs

Anyone who knows me is aware that I am a very friendly person.  I also like to give people the benefit of the doubt before I label them mental.  This should be a good quality, however it causes me a lot of grief!

An example of this is the woman downstairs...

A woman moved in below me about 2 weeks ago.  60 years old, talkative, breast-cancer survivor.  Upon our first meeting, she asked me if I would like for us to hide keys for one another to check on eachothers another cats if need ever be.  RED FLAG!  I found this odd, and of course did not agree, I just kind of brushed it off.  I figured, however, that I shouldn't just jump to conclusions about her.  She invited me down to her apartment last weekend and  we had pizza delivered.  We talked for a few hours, we swapped stories about our Eurpean travels.  She told me she used to work  in education, that she was on disability now and that her car had broken down.  I told her if she ever needed a ride anywhere to let me know.  She mentioned maybe going to the grociery store together Wedensday night.  I didn't really need to go to the grociery store, but I said sure.  She came over the next night to ask me if we were still on.  I said yes.  She stressed that if I couldn't drive her it was  no big deal, that she could take the bus.  Late that night I remembered that a friend of mine was coming over for a visit the next night (Wed. night).  I had her cell phone #, we had texted on occassion, but it was late and I didn't want to wake her.  She had left notes at my door before, so the next morning I left her a note apologizing.  I even said that I was going to the store on my lunch break and could pick anything up for her if she needed.  She later text me that she got my note and not to worry about it, to have a fun time.  The next morning outside my door there was a note from her...  One of the most rediculous notes I have ever read.  I felt like I was back in highschool!  "I no longer want to be acquainted with you, if you are going to ditch your female friend for a guys company then don't expect to keep any friends..."  This not was double-sided!!

She put off many red flags, but I had kept on ignoring them.  Maybe because I felt bad for her living down there all alone with no one to keep her company.  Maybe I thought I was being judgemental, because most of the people in my building are, shall we say, unkempt.  The lesson learned was that I should have trusted  my gut, my intuition.  Why don't we trust our instincts more?  You hear about it all the time, people who are abused in some way because they didn't want to come off as rude so ended up getting themselves into an unsafe situation. 

Always trust your instincts!!