Getting Excited About My Birthday?
I’m going to be 35 on Monday!!! THIRTY-FIVE! That’s just insane. Even though 35 is that point on the graph where fertility steeply declines, I’m still excited about this birthday, as I am about all birthdays. Maybe it’s because I’m an only child.
Unfortunately, what I’d want most for my birthday is the ability to move out of this apartment, but sadly, that can not be. I have signed a one-year lease, so I owe money through the end of August whether I live here or not. This apartment is gorgeous, but here are the problems:
- A very rude downstairs neighbor who plays loud music 90% of the time he is at home (and sadly, his schedule is about the same as mine) and is hostile when I’ve asked him to turn it down.
- A next door neighbor who plays loud music in the mornings (so I can hear it in the bathroom) and gets inappropriately hostile with her young daughter such that I can hear MUCH more than I ever wanted to hear.
- A location next to a dumpster, which is visited in the middle of the night by a HUGE dump truck that makes LOTS of noise. There’s the turning VROOM, VROOM, then the BEEP BEEP BEEP backing up noise, then the picking up the first dumpster noise (BANG, CRASH, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP), then the whole thing again with the second dumpster. This occurs between 1am and 4am 2-3 nights a week.
- The sometimes early morning rantings of the mentally ill and homeless people who are dumpster diving.
- A fine location right under a major flight pattern.
- A VERY close train that HONKS really often at all times of the day and night.
- Just behind the dumpster are two German shepherds who bark at all things that move. They get all the dogs in the neighborhood barking. Last night it went on for two hours before I called the cops.
- Rave Boy and a few other residents smoke on the steps in the courtyard. The noise and smoke come into my sunroom, where I have my computer.
- The radiators are not under my control, and they’ve not been coming on. WHY?
Other than that, it’s about the most beautiful place I’ve ever lived. What do I want for my birthday? I want quiet. Just quiet.
I’m so glad Aaron is coming to visit this weekend. I need some fun and some company.
