New neighbors
 

After a 2-month absence, we apparently have new neighbors.

There are 5 apartments in our building: a 3 BR on the first floor that is occupied by a nice family of 5; a 2 BR occupied by a nice older lady and a 1 BR occupied by a seemingly nice enough couple (though they make a ton of noise and seem to be running for trash couple of the year) on the second floor; and then there's our 1 BR and another 2 BR on the third floor. The 2 BR has been unoccupied since the end of August. The previous tenants, two female roommates about my age, moved to a 3 BR with another roommate. They played their music loud at times, and seemed a bit snooty, but they were alright overall.

I'm always a bit suspicious of new folks moving in. Are they going to be loud? Are they going to cause trouble? Do they have young kids that might keep us up at night? Are they going to be like the people in the building next to us and keep us up at night having sex? Four tenants have moved in and out since we moved in two years ago, so turnover is fairly common. In addition, we seem to have a large vacancy rate at the moment...apparently enough of a vacancy that they dropped the rents. (In fact, I'm kinda pissed about that. An apartment like ours used to go for $755 a month. Rho and I currently pay $734, and have been here two years. Now, they lowered the rent for newbies to $695...what the fuck?!)

The new folks have already started off bad with me--they propped open the security door (our front door that is always locked) by sticking a thumb tack in the door jamb and stuffing paper in the bolt hole. Okay okay...maybe they forgot about it. But I'm going to keep my eye on these folks for a bit. :shotgun:

On the other hand, maybe they're incredibly nice folks...we'll see. :angel:

Re: New neighbors
 

Hmm.. I question the wording of this sentence. :)

We used to have neighbors in the building next door who were, ummm...very vocal in their love-making. You could hear them through the walls. One night during the winter, they must have left their window open...you could hear them down on the parking lot. Fortunately, they moved out about 6 months ago.

Re: Re: New neighbors
 

Yeah. Where can I get neighbors like that?

Update
 

A few days after starting this thread, I met one of my new neighbors...a Pakistani or South Asian (?) gentleman named Babu. He seemed nice enough. It's him, his wife, and their small child (about a year or so old). Judging from the license plates on their car, they came here from New York. Their child cries on occasion, but I only hear it if I'm in the hallway. They're not very noisy, seem to keep to themselves, and whatever they cook in there smells incredibly good...I need to get Rho and I invited over for dinner. :)

Last night, I happened to see them outside, unloading some groceries. I had my key handy, so I let them into the building, and made my way upstairs. A few minutes later, there's a knock on my door...it's them. Babu has locked his keys in the car. He wanted the rental office's phone number, but they don't do after hours lockouts. I broke out a yellow pages to look for a locksmith, but Babu had lockout service with his car insurance, so he called them. He made the call, and I spoke with the driver to give him directions to our complex. Then he, his wife, and the baby waited out in the hallway. Every couple of minutes, I'd hear another knock...he needed something to write on, he needed a phone number in case the tow truck driver needed to call back, etc. The whole time, they're all still out in the hallway.

At this point, it was feeling a bit awkward for me. We don't see our neighbors much, nor do we socialize with them. Not that I don't like socializing, but we just...don't. *shrugs* Here they are, sitting out in the hallway...and it was a bit chilly out there last night. My house looks like shit (when doesn't it?), but I didn't want to see them sitting out there anymore. So, I told them they were welcome to wait inside our apartment until the tow truck came...they thanked me, but refused. The tow truck driver arrived a short time later, and all was well. Babu later knocked on my door again, and thanked me for helping him out.

I could completely empathize with him. Two weeks after we moved into our apartment in DC, I lost our only set of keys. We had to call a locksmith, and sit outside our apartment for almost 3 hours. Then, I had to miss a day of work, b/c the complex had to put a new set of locks on the door the next day. On another occasion, during the 2-week period where we had 2 apartments (the one here and the one in DC), I drove up to bring some stuff for the new place. As I was walking up to the door, it dawned on me...Rho had both sets of keys to our new apartment. I wound up having to drive all the way back to DC, grab the keys, and drive back up to Philadelphia. I originally left for Philadelphia that night at 7:30. By the time I got back to Philadelphia with the keys, it was after 3am...and I had a meeting in Trenton at 8:30am. Oh...did I mention that I forgot dress clothes for the meeting, so I had to rush up to Wal-Mart when they opened at 7am?

I'm glad I was able to help out. I figure it shows the neighbors that we're half-decent folk willing to lend a helping hand. And truth be told, where we live, the attitude seems to be, "If it ain't white, it ain't right"...if you catch my drift. We could certainly use a bit more diversity in these parts...and now, we have whites, an African-American, a Native American, and a family of Asians...all in one building. Good stuff. :)

Re: Update
 

http://www.princesslola.com/Images/S...es/babu-sm.jpg

You are a veddy, veddy good man.

Re: Update
 

I really love the whole melting pot deal. Northern Virginia is the fastest growing area in the country, so we have a <b>lot</b> of immigrants. And most of them are super nice. The Subway by my house is usually run by two Indian guys. I don't know their names, but I've been their "best customer" (their words) for over a year now. We stand there and shoot the shit while they make my sandwich, and one night, Jenni and I brought them muffins. Good times. The Subway by my work is run mostly by Japanese, with some Spanish speakers there for good measure. We're always nice (lots of assholes live in the Fairfax area, we stand out as being polite), and so they're always smiling when they're making our subs. Again, good stuffs.

Then, when I'm at the mall or in pretty much any store, I can see people of all races/backgrounds, wandering around me, mingling. I just think it's cool that you can't see that in many other countries. I love that.

I don't look like Seinfeld at all, but the other guy DOES look a bit like Babu.

Dave, you must just have nice people out by you. I would have expected the immigrants in the DC area to have a better disposition than white folk. Sadly, I didn't find this to be the case...they were as fucking mean-spirited as everybody else. :)

Being a little older and a little wiser, I think I could handle that whole situation much better now though.