When I arrived home I was told that we were to have an
unprecedented neighbor meeting. This meeting ultimately involved a very
redundant (and I would argue semi-pointless) discussion of noises, real and
perceived, with the lower apartments being primarily victims and the upper
apartments (primarily us) being the abusers. Apparently we should not simply
walk, but float. Our neighbor (upper) has lately been reduced to tip-toeing
around his own apartment, trying to sail from doorway to doorway w/o disturbing
his downstairs neighbor. All of this in addition to my own sins leads me to
believe that the apocalypse already happened. This is some sublevel of hell,
wherein no one knows the unofficial but glaringly obvious rule about rentals:
there will be no real privacy, let alone silence. Let's face it, when your
bedroom is adjacent to the abode of another household, whether above, below, or
to its side, you will not only be disturbed but will likely disturb someone
else. It’s the ipso facto form of suffering that most rational people accept as
part of being an apartment dweller as opposed to a home owner. You want
silence? Try headphones. Try sleeping pills. Try a drive far, far away but do
not expect to have such living at most twenty feet away and just a few measly
wood joints apart from three other households.
