Me and me alone

My downstairs neighbor was evicted for being very behind on the rent, about six months worth, according to my landlord. I am sad that it ended up being so unaffordable for her to live here and that she's now so deeply in debt like that. I'm worried what's going to happen in the way of the landlord trying to recoup the back rent. It sounds like he may want to garnish her wages until what she owes is paid back, but that could end up putting her in further jeopardy with her new place if he takes her entire salary until all is repaid. Not my problem, but it still concerns me because she's an old friend who I had hoped would work out to be a good tenant, and that did not end up being the case here. Sure, she planted lovely gardens and beautifully decorated our shared entryway and fortunately, left all of that behind so the house's entrance could feel more like a home, and I very much appreciate that, because it has done a great deal to make it feel more home-like when you come in and there are lace curtains, a lovely mirror and small table in the entrance. I added a nice lace doily for the table to match the lace curtains, and now all it needs is some kind of something on the table, a vase of flowers, a statue, something. I'm thinking a statue of the Chinese goddess Kwan Yin, maybe, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. I don't know, but I feel like this house needs some kind of good karma since the last two downstairs tenants since I moved in have basically screwed the landlord here and left some bad vibes behind. So I don't know what will go there, but something needs to be there to make it feel more complete. We'll see.

I'm hoping that another old friend might move in downstairs. I ran into her last week one evening as I was walking home from downtown and she expressed an interest in the place and I do hope that she will take it. I want the person downstairs to be someone that I know, not some stranger that I have to live with. She would be a good, stable and reliable tenant instead of my friend who obviously seems to have some serious financial problems that have caused her to be evicted from this place. I don't know if she'll agree to rent the place, but we'll see. I will have to show it to her once my current downstairs neighbor is done moving out, which should be in another day or so. This friend who is interested may not be able to move in for a few months yet, but that's OK, I can wait. I'm in no rush to have another tenant down there after having been through a whole year of drama between the neighbor downstairs and the neighbors next door. I'm hoping that this next year will be a far smoother and calmer situation. This first year living here has been anything BUT calm. It's been one drama after another and I am not surprised that my blood pressure is a tad on the high side at the moment. The stress of this move combined with the stress of dealing with difficult neighbor situations has pushed my blood pressure up a bit and I hope that smoother seas lie ahead. I just want a calm situation here, someone to split utility bills with instead of having to pay them myself. I can no longer afford to do that on my tiny pension. I must have help paying these utility bills from now on. It's just not going to work out for me to live here anymore if I don't get help. I just can't afford this house any longer unless I get someone to split the water and electric bills with. I do not want to move again, not anytime soon, nor go on another frantic apartment hunt. So I'll stick it out here and see how things pan out and if the new tenant can pay their half of utilities consistently, then I may just be able to stay here. We'll see. For now, I'm taking it one day at a time.