Thursday, January 3, 2008

Tale of the Crazy Lady Part 1

I moved to this fine city last year – almost one year and one month to the day. Having found a relatively inexpensive one bedroom in “the ‘burbs,” I thought I was settled in for the long haul.

Enter: Neighbor Troubles

Being the organized person that I am (some would say borderline obsessive compulsive, others merely shrug and call me a neat freak), I finished unpacking rather quickly. Shortly thereafter I was enjoying a night of retiring early. I had just settled into bed when an argument broke out in the apartment below mine.

Apparently the woman was yelling at someone on the phone, as there was only the one voice and, therefore, a one-sided argument. From what I could tell, she was a mite disgruntled at this Mystery Caller, and threatened all sorts of mayhem in retaliation, including but not limited to, inviting her cronies from West Allis over to rip this poor Mystery Caller a new one. (That bit about the West Allis cronies is not an exaggeration.)

Good lord, what kind of low-level tenement housing had I gotten myself into?

Fearing for my safety should the phone argument later escalate into a face-to-face fight, I remained awake for most of the night.

Imagine my extreme dismay when such screaming matches became de rigueur and, like clockwork, the woman started yelling at 10:30 pm every night.

I took to visiting the family every weekend to find a bit of peace.

A handful of wakeful nights later, I bring the issue to my new apartment manager. Not wanting to appear the Troublemaker, I calmly explain the situation and ask if I should be concerned.

After listening politely to my tale, I am taken aback when the apartment manager replies with, “Oh yes, that woman is Crazy!” Capital C intentional.

No comments: