Okay, I have a need to vent.....
Thursday, the nosey neighbor stopped over when she noticed me sitting on the front porch with the tablet in my lap. She talked my ear off, and I just wanted to get on with the business I went out there to do on the tablet, in the "fresh air", as I struggled to breathe. 
She's having her kitchen and bathrooms renovated, and the mess is driving her crazy. Understandable though, she's insanely neat. Her husband passed from COVID a couple years ago. This woman is a devout (self-proclaimed) "Christian", her word exactly, (she has never mentioned her denomination. I think she is Protestant, but I'm not sure), and that is wonderful, but every time we chat, she weaves Christianity in to the conversation. Not like one would expect though. I kid you not. Everyone she knows are "Christian". The guys who are doing the work are "Christians" and she was comfortable with leaving them there while she ran an errand. I'm happy for her. They're trustworthy. Who wouldn't want trustworthy people working on their home? Can't they just be trustworthy without pointing out that they are "Christians"? Who says that people of any other faith, or Agnostics and Athiests aren't trustworthy? 33 years of these types of conversations with this woman. Her kids are good "Christians", this person goes to her church, the woman who sold her daughter a home and owns the construction company goes to her old church. Her daughter married a good "Christian" (and wound up divorced because he cheated on her 
) and her second husband is a good "Christian". Bleh, bleh, blehbleh. 
It's gotten to the point that I dread chatting with this woman and I feel terrible about that. It's one thing to spread the word, and a it's a whole other thing to rub one's Christianity in other people's faces during every conversation. I think she actually does this because we are Catholic, and she doesn't understand Catholicism and that we are Christians too. Like us Catholics are from outer space or something. I guess she must be confused that she knows Catholics and doesn't know our beliefs. It's the oddest thing, and all I do is listen politely, nodding and vocally agreeing with valid points every once in a while. 
Why can't she just come out with it and ask me questions? It reminds me of a phrase in a song "....not everyone is what they show you." There's been so much that's happened in this neighborhood over the years. I have terrible trust issues. Now, she became best friends with her next door neighbor, directly across from us, who moved in in the same year we moved in, but last year they sold their house to their daughter and moved to a place with a single floor. They do visit their daughter and the nosey BFF, but there's really nobody for the woman to talk to on the daily, so guess who is the lucky second string? We really keep to ourselves because of her and the former neighbor. Their voices are like a couple of kackling whackos. This is the main reason why I started gardening. I wanted a safe place from prying eyes and to spare my ears. A secret garden in the back yard to relax. She said to me that she hasn't seen me working out front much and she was getting concerned. She has our number. She could have called. This tells me one thing. The honeysuckle I planted to block her view to our back yard is doing it's job! 
Our front yard and gardens aren't looking their best yet, this year. DH has had back problems, and I can't mow the hill in front, and our shrubs need major trimming. I apologized for that. She lives across the street and one house over to the left, so we're in her line of sight. She said she likes the shrubs and not to worry about it. (Remember this.) I said they're just going to get bigger, and I can't stand overgrown shrubs. 0 been neglected since 2021 when things started with Mom, and they are on the verge of overgrown. Prior to our conversation, one of the boys of the new neighbor beside us, cut the grass. During my conversation with the nosey neighbor, I noticed that their mower was no longer running and that their front yard and the grass between our homes had not been cut and I casually said that it was odd. (They have a double lot, so he must have only mowed that side of the house.) I didn't really care. We were both puzzled, and just when I was done with that subject, the nosey neighbor started pointing out how the new neighbor needs to trim their bushes and that the rest of the grass should have been cut, and they have three boys that they should put to work, and I said, "There are four boys." (there's a total of 6 kids) and "It's not my place to judge how they keep up their property." as I pointed at our grass and shrubs. She then started her backstroke kind of mumbling in agreement. Honestly! Now, I do not consider myself to be perfect by any means. I try to live my truest life, I tell it like it is, and what you see is what you get. I am human and a sinner who constantly asks God for forgiveness, and I never put myself on a pedestal. It's people like this woman who is blatantly a faith snob that I have trouble with. I overlook it and keep myself in check to keep the peace, but getting sucked in to these types of conversations every time I see this woman is really getting old. 
