sunshine0221's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Letting Your Bird Go Letting Your Bird Go My neighbor who lives across the street is a cool person. She way out crazy-catladies me (she has 7 or 8 cats) , and she has two amazing doggies, and an African Grey parrot named Peanut who asks me how the hell I am every time I go over to visit. She has a roommate, S, who is the dude who has been doing a ton of yardwork for me. You know how some people's issues really push your buttons? Despite her numerous good qualities, this is the case with Neighbor Across the Street. When I was born I had a full head of hair, and according to the Mom used to spend quite a bit of time pulling my own hair and crying because it hurt. NAtS is still doing that. She had some kind of a bizarre relationship with a guy that everyone knew was a predatory jerk, lost a ton of money because of this relationship, and even though it was over years ago, still talks about the guy all the time. As my coworker astutely said, if we had done something that stupid, WE WOULDN'T TELL ANYONE ABOUT IT. The other enormous button she pushes is financial. She spends money she does not have on every luxury item she can think of, and then doesn't have money for utilities or vet bills. And I suspect this is especially button'y for me because, again, there is the poor me, I don't have money thingie when she has just spent a fortune replacing perfectly good living room furniture. And the kicker? It wasn't even my taste. A few weeks ago, her roommate, S, called me at home in the morning before work. NAtS had had some kind of breakdown, and he didn't know what to do. She had been standing in the middle of the road flagging down cars, and also had apparently let her parrot loose outside. I threw on some clothes, and ran over to her house. She was out of the road at least, but standing outside in her front yard waving at cars. When I spoke with her she started to cry and said that they were after her, and when I asked who was after her she said that the people from Finland kept running her off the road. Nothing she was saying made sense, and she thought everyone was after her. I got her into the house, and took S aside to find out what had happened. He said that she had been getting increasingly irrational, had not slept for a month, and was having some serious delusions, such as Dick Cheney was her father, and was having an affair with her. I had S stay with NatS, and ran back home and called the hospital to find out what I should do. I got put through to the ER, and they were spectacularly unhelpful, and said I should take NatS to her doctor. I was not calling because NAtS was a little depressed or something, I was calling because NatS had had a complete break with reality and needed professional help NOW. The Mom is very wise, and while I was trying to figure out what to do, said to just call 911. I did, and a few minutes later two nice cops showed up. By then NatS had locked herself in the bathroom. While the cops were trying to get her to open the door, S and I looked all over for Peanut. She was not in the house, and we didn�t see her outside anywhere either. NatS finally came out of the bathroom, and the cops took her to the ER. I knew that NatS would be taken care of, and that she would most likely not be coming home any time soon, so I started to put out the word about Peanut. I called all of the birdy people I know, and Kelly, to get advice about how to find Peanut. NatS had enough on her plate without coming home to find out that she had let her bird loose, and that Peanut had never come home. Kelly�s mom is a total bird person, and was wonderfully helpful. She made posters, and called the police and the vet clinics to let them know Peanut was missing. She researched how to catch a parrot that has gotten loose. I called NatS�s neighbors and let them know to be on the lookout for Peanut. While all of this was going on, Jodi, my coworker, who is totally going to hell, started using �letting your bird go� as a euphemism for losing one�s mind. I started getting emails that her kids were driving her crazy and she was going to let her bird go, or that the complicated project at work was going to make her let her bird go. And I am so going to be sitting right next to her in hell, because that? Is really funny. A few days after Peanut disappeared, she showed up at the next door neighbor�s and S got her and took her home. He put her back in her cage, and fed her some grapes. As she ate her first grape she looked up at S and said, �yummmmm�, and is back to bossing everyone around and telling S what to watch on TV. NatS is still in the hospital being treated, but may be home soon. And I am grateful that, although life can sometimes be challenging and stressful, I have never let my bird go. 3:24 p.m. - September 21, 2005 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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