Knock, Knock...

As I sit here typing, Dan and I can hear our neighbors SCREAMING at each other through the walls. This is not something new, as the unhappily married couple next door often has shouting matches at one another.

This past Saturday, Dan and I invited two friends to come over and play cards. I like having people over, but we always have to be very aware of the noise level because the walls are so thin you could hear someone farad. We were all having a great time playing cards, listening to some tunes and drinking a few beers. In the middle of our game, we heard very hard and loud obnoxious banging on our kitchen wall. The banging was so bad that the clock on our wall shook. Honestly, I am always the one on music patrol and always make sure that the level is kept low, in consideration of our neighbors. The speakers are not even on the floor or against a wall to avoid any annoying bass vibrations to those who live underneath and to the sides of us. After the crazes banged on our wall twice, I banged back once out of anger and then turned the music down to a ridiculously low level.

After the banging match ended, we continued to play cards without any further interruptions...Until our door buzzer sounded about twenty minutes later. We never buzz anyone into our building unless we are expecting them because you never know what nut case is on the loose. If it's someone we know, they call to let us know they're waiting to be let in. Anyway, I ran to the door to see if anyone was coming and heard footsteps coming up to our floor. I hurriedly moved the dart board to look through our peep hole, to see two Chicago police officers standing outside our door knocking. As I opened the apartment door, I was mentally cursing the crazy neighbors out for calling the cops on us. I asked the policemen if they'd like to come in and they said no, and asked if we were having a party. I told the seemingly friendly policemen that we were just playing cards with a few friends when we heard a neighbor banging obnoxiously on our wall. They kindly said to make sure we kept the music low due to a complaint that was called in.

After the police left I was really bummed. Even though nothing bad happened to us, I felt very angry and embarrassed that the cops were called on us. I know some of you may be thinking that our music was probably too loud or that I shouldn't have banged back...But you had to be here to truly understand. The music was low and the insane banging was unnecessary.

We also had a little scare yesterday evening when Dan found that our storage space lock had been cut off! In my paranoid mind I thought that someone was out to get us, especially after the police incident. It turns out that our landlord forgot that he told us to use that specific storage space, rather than the one labeled with our apartment number, because that one was occupied when we moved in. I called our landlord to let the company know how upset we were that our belongings were exposed this weekend because our lock had been cut. A rep from the realty company apologized and said we would be reimbursed for the new lock we purchased.

This weekend has not been our first ill encounter with the people who live around us and I'm sure it will not be the last. This past December a neighbor hit Danes parked car and cracked his tail light. When it happened, Dan heard the noise and went to our balcony and saw the neighbor's van pulling away. The next morning when Dan approached the neighbor about it, he said that he didn't do it. A few minutes later that same neighbor came to our door apologizing, saying that his wife hit the car and she was scared to tell her husband she did it. Yea, real nice that the poor woman is scared of her husband.

What it all comes down to is that Dan and I would like to buy a house. However, until we save more cajole, this is not an option. Although we could move into another apartment, this one is great...Despite some neighborly issues. The rent is very reasonable, we don't have to pay gas and it's pretty big for a one bedroom apartment. It can just be frustrating to want to advance, but not be able to because of money. In the meantime, we'll be fine, because we have each other and that's enough.