settling

i'm not sure whether i just wasted three hours last week.  they say time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.  well, this one was not at all enjoyable.  i think it's safe to say not just for me but for the other person as well.  the other person is the neighbor.

anyway, i'll speak for myself.

i had to put up with propositions dropped midway because the logic could not be sustained.

i had to make do with i-forgots and i-can't-recalls.

i had to settle for selective discussion.  if the neighbor says an issue should be brushed aside then be prepared to hear nothing.

yet i had to hear out statements that skirted the issue and missed the point.

i had to bring up the remainder of fragments she chopped out from a whole.

i had to endure stories that began where the neighbor wanted them to begin and ended where she wanted them to end.

i had to listen to discussions of analogies instead of the actual matter.

i had to correct misattributions.

i had to watch in disbelief as the neighbor kept on confidently (!) making statements that were inconsistent with one another.

i had to raise objections as she so blatantly kept on applying a different rule for herself.

i couldn't help but cringe everytime she uttered a statement she intended to strengthen her argument but on the contrary weakened it.

it was frustrating.
it was exhausting.
it was a severe test of patience.
insane.

amidst all these, as in, sandwiched in between (!), the neighbor asked whether i'm not going to say sorry.

eh?!  i'm the one being truthful here!

there i was looking at her funny then was i startled when she suddenly started apologizing profusely.  it was a touchy-feely apology.  after that she asked whether i'm not going to say sorry myself.

hmmm...  okay.  one word.  no hands.  sorry.

i'd like to think the apologies were sincere but, maybe because of the way they unfolded, it felt weird.

at some point i asked the neighbor why she suddenly became 'kind' ("ba't bigla kang bumait?").  she used to be so aggressive and dismissive.  in her last message and our last talk she was markedly toned down.

is it because i've been exposing her in my blogs?

she said she does not read my blog.

oh...  so that's why she keeps on spouting the same falsehoods.

anyway, why the change?

she said it's so tiring to be quarrelling with the neighbors.  (they have figured in conflicts with the other neighbors as well.  not just recently but even from long ago.)  she says it came to a point where she already wanted to sell the house.

oh...  okay.

peace based on fatigue...  i'll take it...

No comments:

Post a Comment