Those who inhabit the halls...
We live across from the largest unit in the building, roughly double the size of our own. It was recently rented by an older woman, seemingly nice, but with a dog that has that look of...not playful joy, not respect for man...oh, it's evil. If you are smart, you can pick out which dogs are planning attacks, and which ones just want to give you wet, sloppy kisses. The dog is well above the weight of what is allowed here, but hey, I don't make the rules, and I don't enforce them. He is a loud barker, but I can forgive him that. It is his master that begs me to complain. Just a few weeks ago, we arrived home to find a car parked in the "common" areas of the garage. Let's keep in mind that we are in Chicago, parking is at a premium, and not a great deal of space is set aside for garages. So, needless to say, each time we must park, it requires great effort and maneuvering skill. Yet, here we have a car, parked directly in front of another one. In order for me to back into my spot properly, I would have to drive on top of the offending vehicle and then back into position. Sounds easy enough, but somehow, I couldn't quite get it. We can determine, through regular common sense, that the car belongs to the new tenant, or someone she probably knows. So, the other half runs upstairs to chew some ass. In the meantime, I am able to successfully plant myself into my spot. This called for at least 12 changes from drive to reverse. I triumphed. But after 1 1/2 hours in rush hour traffic, this was not my idea of fun or relaxation. As I was exiting the garage, here comes the other half, with the raggedy bitch who ruined my life (excuse the use of melodrama). She was apologetic, but I was not in the right frame of mind to accept. So I told her to "use some f***ing common sense!" and she shouted back that she did not live here, etc. As the apparent daughter of the neighbor busied herself w/ her "blockage" I of course knocked on the door of the neighbor, several times, so that I might let off some steam. No one answered. Probably a good thing. Since then, we have not seen them again, and the ghostly vehicle has never reappeared. More recently, there was a party (possibly a wake, I could not tell, as the other half took up the entire peep hole). Let's remember that this is the largest unit in the entire building. Somehow, the guests found it necessary to hold a portion of their discussions in the hallway. While our unit is generally very quiet (good solid construction), the only time you can really hear your neighbors, is if you are roaming the hallways, or if they are standing right outside your front door, talking about how great Roger was, and that it is too bad he is dead, and how nice it is to see Sandy. Whatever. On other occasions, various items have been stored in the hallway outside "owner of evil dog's" door, and many times they feel the intense need to hang out in the hallway, where they choose to speak without the benefit of their indoor voices. What is happening here? Is there not enough space in that vast mansion across the way? Respect, common sense and kinder pets...that's all I ask.
2 comments:
I find it amusing that people react to apartment neighbors in one of two ways: either they find great amusement in the follies of humanity and enjoy a faux voyeurism (you are, in fact in your own apartment), or they grate on your every nerve. I usually find my neighbors a source of artistic inspiration, but living in a studio the size of a shoebox, I often feel surrounded. Last night, for example, my downstairs neighbor decided to give his furniture a beating (maybe the ottoman was talking back, but I think the futon has been seeing other gangsta bia-tches). Not as much fun at 2AM as it would have been at 8PM.
It's not that I am blind to the dangers of apartment/highrise living. I have accepted some things as fate, and moved on. Use of laundry facilities with others that are less clean that I, dogs barking, the smells of bad cooking as you rush past neighbor doors to get to your own, without first vomiting. But just common decency would make most people stop and say, "I wonder if this will bother those around me, that also pay to live here?" I don't expect folks to be neighborly, I don't expect them to bring me chicken soup when I am feeling ill, and I don't expect them to check up on me when the smell of my corpse starts to lure buzzards from the out-of-doors, right into our hallway, and directly in front of my door. Just don't have your AA meetings outside in the halls, when you have a perfectly good room inside your condo, where you can drink yourself to death, and not irritate me in the process. Jeez!
Post a Comment