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Friday, August 31, 2007

In Which I Make You NOT Miss Apartment-Living

Adam and I are Old Fucks

I am the first person to admit it (he is still kind of in denial,), but the truth remains, we usually don’t go out late on weeknights, and instead for the most part are in bed by 10 watching Nick at Night so we can be up at 6AM the next day. If we had a Craftmatic Adjustable Bed the image would be complete.

Now, our downstairs neighbors are also members of the Fuck Family, but rather than being Old Fucks they are Don’t Give a Fucks. They are young, brash, and blast their thumping loud crappy music ALL EVENING LONG and on the weekends pretty much ALL DAY AND NIGHT LONG.

Now, as you may have surmised, apartment building goings-on generally don’t bother me until they begin to affect my sleep (like, say, a super obnoxious car alarm that BTW went off at 10PM last night). I need my sleep. Being overtired at work just does not do since I am barely detail oriented enough to survive on a cogent, well rested day, let alone a groggy and stupefied day. So I have been dealing silently with the fact that most evenings after work their music is so loud that it shakes the furniture in the living room. Or that the guy in the bedroom below our bedroom thinks working out at 10PM while blasting his shitty testosterone rage rock is awesome. Adam and I, though we are old fucks, are not yet crotchety so we usually won’t go down and knock on their door unless it’s after 11PM and to be honest they do always shut it off when we ask them too.

But is it asking too much for them just to NOT play their music that loud at all. I mean if you want to implode your ear drums that’s fine but do you have to make my couch* vibrate while you do it? Or can you at least blast some Frank Sinatra or Pink Martini once in a while?

In any case last night, when the music started blaring at 1AM and Adam had to go down yet again to tell them to please for the love of god STFU, I wondered if it would be tempting fate to get my landlord involved.

On one side of the problem we have the fact that as Don’t Give a Fucks, who knows what they would do if the landlord told them they had a noise complaint. They would probably know it was us, and that would also open the door for them to narc us out when they see fit.

On the other side though, it’s nice that they do turn down the music when we ask but having to ask is ANNOYING. And disruptive to our sleep. And these are young men who I think have not lived in an apartment before and I think it would behoove them to learn that you have to respect your neighbors enough to let them sleep.

Christ I really am old.


*When you read that did you think it said crotch? I totally did. Yet I left it in.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are not old at all - you are a reasonable person! As you, I'm in bed at 9 p.m. and I'm still in my 20's...27. But, with a demanding career (breadwinner right here) and a kid, husband and dog, I'm nodding off after dinner. A glass of wine and I'm done. I'd have a bit of a come to jesus talk with the guys and say, "Listen, playing your music between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. is okay but PLEASE for the love of god, stop playing it when it gets dark." You can only be nice so many times. If it continues, talk to the landlord. You've put up with a lot already!

Good luck!

Jenny said...

You may have tried this already, but maybe one night at 6 p.m. or so, or one weekend day, go down and be like "Hi. I really don't mean to be rude, but we both work full time jobs, which means going to be at 10 and waking up at 6. You guys have been really awesome about turning off the music when we ask, but would you mind trying not to play it between those hours on weekdays? We would really appreciate it."

Perhaps they'd be like "sure, sorry!" Doesn't hurt to try....

Anonymous said...

Oh, I am SO feeling for you. Remember PJ and I living downstairs from Troll Boy and Casper for 2 years? If not, let me refresh your memory - He'd put on his lead shoes, blast his tunes, play his guitar at midnight, do major construction in his apt. first thing on a Sunday morning, and pound his girlfriend into our ceiling while she howled (sounded like she was a ghost haunting a house...hence "Casper") out the window and into the parking lot where it bounced off each building in our apartment complex and back through our bedroom window. Did I mention that'd be at 3 a.m. on a Wednesday? I'm surprised the plaster on our ceiling didn't give way and we woke with a strange naked woman in our bed. I used to pound on the walls and ceiling and shout "Shut up!" out the window. I also wrote a letter to him, and asked PJ to deliver it, but he's too passive and wouldn't do it. Where's Adam when you need him? LOL.

k e r r y said...

I am old too... sadly we have this problem and we don't live in an apartment. Our neighbor likes to set off firecrackers after 10 PM on the weekends. Sometimes we are in bed watching a movie or whatever but on either side of this neighbor are young families with brand new babies! Talk about rude!

Rebecca said...

Ah yes.... I do not miss living in an apartment. I'm sorry!!! Though I have to tell you - sometimes living in a house in a neighborhood has it's issues as well. Like last night for example...someone left their poor dog out from 1:30 a.m. on!!! He barked and barked and barked...never mind the fact that it's not safe! I live near the fricken woods! We have coyote and fisher cat and fox! Poor thing.

If it happens again tongiht, we're walking over and waking those people up and telling them that if they don't take care of their dog, we'll take their dog away. How rude.

John J. Wall said...

Consideration requires empathy, which requires a room temperature IQ. People like this tend to be less plentiful in apartments for some reason...

Anonymous said...

I am so sorry you have to deal with that! I've been dealing with the same for MONTHS now. Thank god they are packing this weekend!!! I wrote a letter to my landlord expecting him to handle it in a normal way. Instead he brought the letter right on up to them to read. UGH! We tried the politely asking, we tried the going upstairs at 11, we tried everything!! Some people are just not meant to live in close proximity to other humans!

Britt said...

Oh, I can so relate. Hubby is in denial also, but we are pretty much the annoying old neighbors (in a complex near the downtown college bar scene) who have to constantly tell people to turn down their music.
Friday night found us in our gym clothes, drinking a beer, watching Animal Planet and going to bed around 10:30 - woo crazy weekend nights!

Anonymous said...

I don't blame you for being a annoyed...I would keep the peace (lol) and not go the the landlord as they wil know it's you - you can perhaps forwarn them by letting them know you have no other choice but to do that if this keeps up...rock on