28 Days of Thanks

Today I am super thankful for...my alarm system!!

I know that's a weird thing to be thankful for but I had an unpleasant encounter yesterday that made me feel quite vunerable. I heard my doorbell ring and at first, I thought it was my gardener Jose. Yet, Jose never rings the bell as obnoxiously as it was ringing. It seemed like an emergency and it was about 5:45 close to getting dark. I saw a guy standing at our gate at the bottom of the stairs holding a clipboard. I opened the door a crack and he rudely asked me for a donation for painting numbers on our curb. *MAJOR EYE ROLL* This is an on going scam happening across Los Angeles where guys paint the numbers on your curb and then attempt to extort money from the homeowners as a "donation". I wasn't having it! I told him in a firm voice NO Thanks! and he says well I already painted your curb. I then said I didn't ask you to do that. He says well didn't you get the notification card?  I said NO! and slammed the door in disgust. I was so mad!! I called our local police department to report him and all they told me is unless he has certification from the city, he is illegally soliciting. They told me to call them again if he comes back. I thought, well he's gone but to be safe I turned on our alarm *which I usually do after dark* and called Antz to come home immediately. He came home in 15 minutes and do you want to know that asshole came back and rang our doorbell??!! Antz went out there and said pretty much the same thing I said previously but this guy was not getting the hint. Antz asked me if I had a few dollars to get rid of him but I was adament that we weren't giving him a dime! I called the police again and they wanted my info so they could send out an officer. Antz didn't want to give out our info since the guy knows where we live and he seemed really aggressive. *SO LAME* This is reason number #1,248 of how badly I want to move. Typically besides my savage neighbors across the street, our area is moderately safe. We live in a college town and there is generification happening in Highland Park *which is why we moved there, everyone told us the neighborhood was "up and coming". There are 2 awesome bars, a couple of art galleries and an Argentinian coffee shop where all the hipsters hang out in front of alll day with their indie haircuts, super expensive designer dogs, cigarette-chain smoking and bike riding. On our side of my street, we are middle class, family-oriented, respectful neighbors. I called both neighbors on the sides of us to warn them about the guy but neither were home at the time. Worst of all, we were leaving to go to Apple Valley *where I currently am* so we felt uneasy loading the car up because we didn't want the guy to see we were going out of town. So I am super annoyed, super preturbed that the police could care less and super thankful that we have an alarm on our house. Honestly I couldn't sleep without that added security. Our house is already Fort. Knox with 1,000 watt motion lights, our huge locked gate and ADT stickers on every window. My only concern is having our house tagged on. Anywhere in LA grafiti is a huge problem and our neighbors on the right of us had their brand new retaining wall written on just months after having it installed. I would go ape-shit if someone wrote on our lovely retaining wall *we do not have the paint to match it*. Our first month in our new house someone wrote on our garage walls and I called the city to have someone come out and paint over it but they did a sloppy, half-ass job, we may as well have painted it ourselves. So I am crossing my fingers, rubbing rabbit's feet and saying little prayers that when we get home tomorrow our house is safe and sound and that guy finds some other suckers to extort. Thanks for the peace of mind ADT...in a world full of cretins!