The Obama Voter Registration Angel

This morning someone from the Obama campaign came and knocked on my door and gave me the opportunity to update my voter registration address and to sign up for a mail-in ballot. I'm definitely voting early this year, though I don't know if I'll do it by mail. (I tend to be very lackadaisical when it comes to mailing things in.) So, that was the angel of the day, The Obama Voter Registration Angel.

Though actually when The Obama Voter Registration Angel rang the doorbell, I was expecting it to be someone else.

I'm house-sitting at the moment for Kelly Workout and Kelly Workout's very annoying sister-in-law lives right next door in a house owned by Kelly and her partner and, big surprise, Annoying SIL is unemployed and pays no rent. Annoying SIL likes to ring the doorbell two or three times a day for various reasons, each of them more annoying than the last. (She has a key to the house, but I think Kelly told her not to just let herself in while I'm there. And she didn't, at least not for the first three days. Now she just rings the doorbell and then immediately lets herself into the house, which is super annoying.) See, I don't care about having her right next door and having to answer the door, but I do hate that she just lets herself in now, and I also have to say that if I were Kelly and my annoying, pays-no-rent sister-in-law lived next door and I still had to write a check for a house-sitter to come and feed my four cats and water the plants, I'd be pretty pissed off.

Anyway, when The Obama Voter Registration Angel rang the doorbell this morning, of course I assumed that it was Annoying SIL, so I got up to answer the door, ready to say in my best bored voice, "Oh, it's Annoying SIL. What a surprise," and then go into the bedroom and close the door (which is what I did last time she rang the doorbell and came in). Sounds rude, huh? But the reason she came over yesterday was to use the dryer and I ended up getting stuck in an hour-long conversation with her that was more like therapy sessions with me playing the role of therapist. During the conversation/therapy session, she went on and on about her awful ex-girlfriend who threw her out of the house for no reason and who wouldn't even let her in when she went to her house the last time and how she's really worried about her ex-girlfriend and how she keeps calling and calling and emailing and emailing but how the ex-girlfriend refuses to take her calls or answer her emails. (My response was: "Huh. Sounds like she doesn't really want any contact with you.") And how her ex-girlfriend is so abusive and how her ex-girlfriend feels so trapped and is jealous of her. And now that she's broken up with her ex-girlfriend it's the best thing that's happened to her ever because now she can work on her art and read books about spirituality and find a great job and go camping.

(Only she's not doing any of that stuff, she's just talking about doing all that stuff. What she's really doing is sitting in her house and trying to think of a million reasons to ring the fucking doorbell and get free therapy.)

And I, stifling yawns and examining my toenails (seriously), sit there on the couch going, "Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh."

Here's the thing: I am not a patient person in general and I have almost zero patience with self-centered whiners (as far as I'm concerned, they constitute unto themselves a whole class of fools whom I refuse to suffer gladly). I don't mind listening to people who are gaining some understanding or who are working their way through a problem, but that isn't what Annoying SIL is doing. She's not moving forward, she's just wearing a rut into her life with her endless talk.

Mostly what I'm doing while I listen to Annoying SIL is reminding myself over and over that it isn't my house and I'm just there to do a job, and since I want to maintain my friendship with Kelly Workout, I should probably behave with a modicum of politeness to her sister-in-law, however annoying.

But I have to tell you: Kelly Workout is a saint for putting up with her. I would've drawn a line in the sand a long time ago and declared war. But that is just me. I don't like whiners and I really, really don't like people who disrespect my privacy.