beenie

Please won't you (not) be... my neighbor

Our neighbor Jeanne came banging on the door at 7:45 PM last Friday, saying she had two pictures fall off her wall from one of our guests' children "jumping around."

A little note: for anyone not in "the know," we have guests every Friday night, sometimes up to 15 people in our apartment. Apparently Jeanne has had problems with us before, but she's only addressed it with us directly once (in JUNE). She's had the manager come to our apartment on a number of occasions, during all of which they've listened at our door, determined that it just sounded like we were watching movies and not being excessively noisy and that they didn't even need to ask us to keep it down. We never even knew about this until the manager told us less than a week ago.

Wait, I take that back - the manager's wife, Nicole, knocked one night, asking us to just tone it down even more just for that one night, because Jeanne said she'd just keep calling them until the noise level was to her satisfaction. Nicole had been awakened by Jeanne's call and was drop-dead tired, which is why she asked.

Okay, back to this past Friday night...

First of all, the child jumped once. Second of all, if two pictures fell off her wall, she must have them hung with scotch tape - We've had heavy books fall off a bookcase and have never had anything fall. Granted, the child is heavier than a book, but - I've tripped and fallen in the living room and have never had anything fall off the wall, and I weigh probably 10 TIMES what the child weighs. I was tempted to give her a box of picture hangers. Honestly, I think she's lying. There have been nights where the child has been MUCH more rambunctious and Jeanne hasn't said a word, and pictures tend not to fall off a wall unless they're hung improperly.

DH asked her to step into the hallway so they could discuss the situation, since we had people over. She wasn't interested in listening to a word he said or discussing the situation rationally, just yelling and belittling. She said she's spoken to both him and me about the situation. He reminded her that she's spoken to me twice, and never to him, and she's never been anything but rude to me - the first time when they first moved in, when I told her she was more than welcome to call us if she ever had a problem, the second time when she called us at 10:20 to complain that her lease said noise had to stop at 10:00 (we hadn't been making any, it just wasn't silent enough for her), which was some time in June. She was completely rude to me when that happened (I answered the phone).

He reminded her again that she's never been anything but rude to us, and told her that he will not tolerate anyone being rude to him or rude to his wife. He also told her that if she wanted to discuss the situation rationally like adults that our door was always open. Which is the truth. She just walked away muttering under her breath.

We both think she probably thought she'd come up, say what she wanted to say and go back downstairs and that she didn't expect anyone to stand up to her. She actually threatened to call the police on us, but either she didn't call, or she called and they told her they couldn't do anything, because the 5-oh never showed up, LOL.

About half an hour later, our neighbor Lisa came over, said she heard the whole thing, and said that next time Jeanne comes up to say something, she'll have to talk to her first, LOL.

We called Mike (the apartment manager) right after she left. He stopped by on Saturday morning and we had a nice chat. He said that EVERY TIME HE SEES HER she complains about us (which we pretty much knew - while she NEVER complains TO us, we know she complains ABOUT us), and rants and raves about how she "just wants peace and quiet," like she used to have (she used to live in an apartment building where it was absolutely silent and no guests were allowed after 10:00), which she more than gets during the week. We've actually had other neighbors ask us if we've been on vacation because they can never hear us.

She tells Mike that we have loud parties all weekend and that we always have a loud stereo on during the week (both completely false). She's completely overstating everything, so I'm guessing that's her way of saying that we have some people over and that we - gasp! - watch TV and move around the apartment during the week. I mean, really - if I think DH has the TV too loud at 6:15 in the evening, I'll ask him to turn it down - I'm NOT a loud person (except in the car, LOL).

Mike reassured us that we have as much right as anyone to have people over, and he's told her several times that having neighbors who make more noise than you do, or even more noise than you're used to, is a chance you take when you move into an apartment complex, and that if she wanted complete silence that she should move to a retirement community.

Posted by beenie at November 11, 2003 03:58 PM