Proper wording is very important…

I may have a real-life example for explaining perceptual sets to my students

Yesterday, when I got my mail, there was a business card for a groomer. Since I don't have a pet, I almost threw it out. I decided to flip it over and read the back. OMG. It said…"In a short time, (former neighbor) will be finished with the punishment."

This would be considered weird for most people, but it scared the crap out of me for several reasons. First of all, this particular neighbor never liked me. He'd never thank me when I opened the door for him and even brushed past me in the hall, hitting my shoulder with his. Totally rude. Never said hello. Also, whenever I made the slightest bit of noise, he'd bang on the ceiling of his apt. For example, I had someone over and while putting down the futon (which does make some noise – I have wood floors), he furiously banged on the ceiling for 5 minutes after. It takes all of 30 seconds to convert the futon to the bed configuration. He seemed to have some anger issues.

The biggest thing, however, is that I know he has a criminal history. I did get sex offender notifications for him. When I looked at his record (yay for public records) I saw that he had some assault charges too.

So, putting this information together, I quickly determined that I needed to leave my apt asap. I took it as he was going to be getting out of jail soon…and that he might come after me. He really seemed to hate me when he lived here.

a bag and booked it over to a friend's apartment, where I called my landlord. She told me that they (his fiancée/wife) were getting their lives together and moved out into a bigger place. She asked me about the business card – what it was for, what it said, etc. When I looked more carefully at the front, I noticed it had the name of the groomer on it. My landlord identified it as his fiancée. Also, there appeared to be a $5 coupon on the card too. My landlord said it was probably her way of telling people that she and H were doing ok and everyone probably got one.

This makes sense, but why would she write something like that on the card? I never talked to them; they didn't know me. However, it is not likely that someone sending a threatening note would leave a business card with her own name on it.

Now I feel silly about freaking out so much about it. The criminal charges against him were quite a while ago. I was really thinking about calling the police. I'm very happy I didn't; that could cause huge problems for them. I hate that I'm that judgmental about people. I am a believer that people can change, if they want to. It sounds like he wants to. Plus, I could have taken a little bit longer to read the card completely. I'm really happy that my landlord knew him well enough to understand what she probably meant.

Ah, the drama.