Lady-Downstairs

Protected: My Nemesis

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Return of the Neighbor

The Lady-Downstairs has returned. Although this time she took to ringing door bells. My guess is that this was in emulation of my previous midnight ringing a few weeks back. I finally got up and answered it, although without opening the door. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “Who is it?” (…like I actually needed to ask. I probably should have said, ‘Go back to bed Fawn, no one wants to hear you complain.’ Heh, I’ll have to remember that one for next time.)
Fawn: “It’s Fawn, Andrew.” (Note, I debated putting her real name here. However, I figure if she’s going to ring my doorbell at 3am…)
Me: “What do you want Fawn.”
Fawn: “I’m trying to go to bed and your making noise.”
Me: “No I’m not.”
Fawn: “Andrew.”
Me: “I’m going back to bed. Goodnight.”
Fawn: “I’ll call the police.”
Me: “Go for it.”

She never did call the police.

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Change of Heart

I received a letter in the mail the other day from the Jefferson County Mediation Board. The Lady-Downstairs doesn’t want to meet anymore. No word on why not. I’m guessing it has to do with: not wanting to sign the legal form (although I can’t imagine why), me calling the police (can’t take a dose of her own medicine?), or thinks she can handle the last three months without any issue (yea right).

We’ll see how this goes.

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The Situation

This is a follow up to this mornings incident. This is what the situation seems to be:

The Lady-Downstairs is hearing noises, but can’t identify what they might be. She says it sounds like a printer. I’m upstairs going about my businesses in a reduced fashion in order to be as quiet as possible. He’s the frustrating part, her statements are so vague and inaccurate that A) I don’t know what she’s talking about, or B) She complaining about something that I have the perfect right to do. Either way, I can’t do anything about it.

My hands are tied and she’s bitching and complaining about it.

I have less then 3 months left in this apartment. I’m contemplating considering moving out, I don’t know where. Maybe a hotel or something if they’d cut me a deal. I really can’t have any more of these knocking incidents as they keep me up longer then I want to and cause me great stress, frustration, and anxiety.

As it turned out, I did end up skipping my first three classes today. Mostly due to lack of sleep, also due to the fact that I am sick. I also email my circuits professor and he’s agreeable to let me take the makeup circuits exam next week. That will help with the stress and anxiety of today and tomorrow.

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The Police

Not the band, but me actually calling them.

The officer almost wrote her a ticket, but instead agreed to come back on Tuesday at 3 to work things out…maybe write a ticket? He noted that the whole thing is ridiculous…which I completely agree with.

Apparently, I might have been printing (I wasn’t…I can assure you of that), because that’s what it sounded like…according to the lady downstairs.

Know what sucks…I have to get up in 2.5 hours and I can’t really take the day off because I’ll get too far behind. I also have a fucking exam tomorrow (Tuesday) that I still have to study for. And a pre lab due tomorrow.

I need to find my Lexapro Lorazepam.

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Mediation…or Not

Tuesday rolled around a few days ago and, like I last reported, it was mediation time. I arrived a bit early as I didn’t want to be late. 6pm came and went and no Lady-Downstairs. It wasn’t until 6:15 that she finally showed.

We got started.

The first bit of business was to sign the Agreement to Mediate. It’s a really short agreement that basically says:

  1. The mediators are neutral parties parties and will not decide who is right and wrong
  2. The mediators will not offer legal advice
  3. For mediation to be effective, it must be confidential. Of particular note, you waive all rights to call the mediator(s) as a witness; you waive all rights to subpoena any records of the mediators once mediation is completed; the exception being documents allowed by law to be made public; no audio or video recordings
  4. Full disclosure of all relevant and pertinent information
  5. You can leave mediation at anytime
  6. If an agreement is reached, a Memorandum of Understanding will be created and finalized.

Those are pretty much the highlights. So after carefully pouring over it all (the actual text is only a single page, both sides), I’m ready to sign.

Wait for it….waaaait for it….

Lady-Downstairs says, “I’m sorry to do this, but I’m going to need some more time to look this over.”

There it is!

I really like one of the mediators response, “That’s you prerogative.”

She then launches into this “I’ve been really busy and I’m up for tenure and I have these meetings and…and…and it’s really exciting, but I’m also really stressed and I don’t need this extra stress and I’ll be done in a couple weeks…how does that work for you?”

Oh give me a break.

Do not. I repeat. Do not waste my time with this bullshit. First you cancel, now you delay. I think everyone gets the picture, you just a tad bit egotistical.

I’m really waiting for her world to come crashing down once she realizes she doesn’t have a friggin’ leg to stand on (about the noise, that is).

Vindication is a wonderful thing.

So we’re back to square one. Oh, and right before I started writing this up, she knocked again…twice. I think if she calls again, I’m just going to call the police and let them know that my neighbor has been and is continuing to harass me.

You know what would be funny…if I got a restraining order for her.

Oy vey.

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Will This Work?

When I last left off, the lady downstairs was banging banging banging.

Well, the next morning I walked out to check the mail and I saw that a representative from the Golden Police Department had left a business card with a note on back:

Received noise complaint on 12/14/2006 at 1:05AM

The interesting thing is that the officer didn’t knock last night, so I’m guessing they didn’t take the complain seriously or assumed that it had stopped before they got here.

I talked with Dad and he talked with Laurel Property Services. Then I talked with Laurel Property Services. I was very disappointed by how Laurel decided to deal with the situation. Their suggestion was to call the police if she banged again. Okaaaay.

I did some more thinking and talked to some more people. I finally decided to go talk to her, although somewhat reluctantly. The conversation went something like this:
Me: “So, there was some knocking last night.”
Her: “Yeah.”
Me: “And I’m trying to figure out why.”
Her: “You were noisy and woke me up.”
Me: “Okay. We’ll, I’ve tried to keep noise to a minimum. I’ve worked out in the living room when possible, but sometimes it’s not, and I’ve had my Uncle, who’s a carpenter come and install screws to help minimize the squeaking. That’s seemed to help a bit, at least from what I can hear. I don’t think there’s anything more I can do.”
Her: “Last year, Logan studied in the living room and that seemed to work pretty well.”
(My jaw figuratively dropped in my head; did she just say that?)
Me: “Have you tried calling Laurel?”
Her: “Yes, they said to call the police.”
(I found this part interesting…almost like Laurel is playing both sides)
Her, continuing: “I’ve been nice and haven’t called them all semester, but last night was just too much. I’ve been constantly late to work. Before you moved in, I was never late. I may lose my job because of this. ”
(Inner commentary: “One word lady: earplugs”)
Me: “Well, okay then. Thanks for your time.”

And I left. Did I just have this conversation? I called the non-emergency police number and informed them that I was having a dispute with my neighbor and would like an officer sent over. The dispatcher asked if I would be willing to go to mediation. “Sure!” I said, “Anything at this point.” She gave me the number for the Jefferson County Mediation. I gave them a call. The called back the next day and left a message. They seemed very nice. I’m going to call them tomorrow to get the ball rolling so that I can get this all figured out right when I get back.

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What to do About the Neighbor Below

As I’ve previously reported here and here, the neighbor below has certain noise issues. I’ve tried to keep quite, but in order for me to be quite I pretty much have to forgo the use of my bedroom after 10pm unless I’m using it for sleeping.

I’m not quite sure if was all the thinking about politics I’ve had to do lately or taking an economics class, but I’ve decided that me having to forgo the use of my bedroom to appease the childish needs of the neighbor below isn’t going to work anymore.

Here’s the plan. Currently she “enjoys” knocking on the ceiling whenever she feels I’m being too loud. This knocking annoys and frustrates me. The next time she knocks I will inform her of her choice. She can either stop knocking or she can offset the cost of me not being able to use the room I pay rent for. That is, she can pay me to be extra quiet just for her. I currently value my time at $19.37 an hour, and that’s the rate she can pay.

Seems like a fair, free market compromise. Actually, I think this falls under the Coase theorem.

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Random Questions

Last…

  • Cigarette: Never.
  • Good cry: Last spring, over school sucking.
  • Library book checked out: Naked Conversations
  • Movie seen: Super Troopers
  • Book read: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
  • Cuss word uttered: “Fuck”. Potentially “shit”.
  • Beverage drank: Glass of water
  • Food consumed: Chocolate cake
  • Phone call: my Mom
  • TV show watched: Family Guy
  • Time showered: Today, around 1pm
  • shoes worn: New Balance
  • CD played: CD?
  • Item bought: Food
  • Downloaded: picture of my cat, Dunstan
  • Annoyance: The lady downstairs
  • Disappointment:
  • Thing written: Economics homework (typed)
  • Key used: a
  • Word spoken: “That’s pretty awesome.”
  • Sleep: 11:45am
  • IM: Laura
  • Ice ream eaten: Coldstone
  • Time hugged: today, my aunt
  • Time scolded: Last week, for being “too loud”
  • Chair sat in: the one I’m sitting in
  • Shirt worn: In-n-Out
  • Time dancing: baseball game on Friday
  • Show attended: Chicago, in London

via Audreyln

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