Okay, so I moved into my apartment about ten days ago. It was insanity. Brother and Father did pretty much all of the heavy lifting and I basically stood in the room and told them where to put things. I felt like such a stereotypical girl.
I had met one guy already in the complex who awkwardly introduced himself (every time I see him it's like he pops out from behind something and startles me) as Alex.
Then while walking Penny I ran into another upstairs neighbor named Kenny. He was nice and mentioned he would definitely remember my dog's name because it rhymed with his.
So then the next day I was late for my first day of work, so I was running out the door when I saw Kenny sitting out by the pool juggling. Like with juggling balls. I had just enough time to think whaaaaaaat? and wave hi back before I ran off to my car. That night he saw me coming out of the apartment with Penny and waved me over. I met one of his friends and he invited me to go to dinner with them and another one of his friends. Sure, why not?
I found out that he is a circus arts enthusiast but a plumber by trade. Crazy!
At this point in the story while relating it to my friend Catia, she asked "Are you going to marry him?" No. No no no.
At dinner, he was talking about one of the other neighbors who is just insane, and I stopped him. "It's not Alex, is it??"
"How do you know Alex? Oh, Kate, please steer clear of him. He's crazy."
He went on to detail the insanity of Alex. This guy was arrested on the fourth of July because he had his friend tape a lead pipe on his back as a concealed weapon and then tore up a guy's car or something. It seems he has a drinking problem and he gets very violent. "If he ever knocks on your door after dark, don't open the door, just call me."
So then a few days later I heard loud loud loud music upstairs. It wasn't over my bedroom so I figured I could sleep anyway. Then I heard pounding on the door across from me. LOUD pounding. And Alex yelling something about "Pounding on the f***ing ceiling" and "open the door!"
Penny didn't like that one bit. (I'm so grateful for her intimidating big girl bark.)
That morning, I saw that he had left a note on my neighbor's door explaining that he was a very calm person and they could have been friends if she had come up and knocked on his door and politely asked him to turn the music down.
I related all of this to Kenny when I ran into him on the way to work the next morning and I guess all he heard was that Alex was playing loud music.
So then I saw Alex again and he apologized for playing music so loudly. I told him that was okay, it was the pounding on the neighbor's door that scared me. He didn't seem to hear that part. I think he was already drunk.
I ran into Kenny (he's always by the pool) and he said he had talked to Alex and told him it was unacceptable to play his music that loudly because now they had neighbors and he had to be considerate, so I would probably be hearing from him.
My mother is in town for a conference and is helping me get everything set up. I did a quick run into the apartment and Alex stopped me.
"Hey, can I ask you a question really quickly?"
ohnoohnoohno
"Sure, what's up?"
"Have you heard my music since that last time it was really loud?"
"No, and really what scared me that night was you pounding on the neighbor's door."
"I'm sorry about that. I have tried to talk to her about it but she won't open the door."
And just because I have a death wish or something
"Well, I think yelling obscenities through the door probably isn't the best way to get a girl to answer."
"Yeah, you're probably right. I'm sorry. I left a note on her door apologizing."
"Oh okay. I get the feeling she doesn't really want to make friends. I have to go, my mom is waiting for me."

Ah, neighbors...

Anyway, apartment is coming together. You will not see pictures until it is all set up. Work is going well and I'm having a great time with these little kids in my training period before I start for-real work on the first (A week from tomorrow!). I have a weird homework assignment from them and I'm going to have a bit of trouble with it because I don't know how to build lesson plans yet. I think it's pretty straightforward with toddlers, but still, I don't know how it is supposed to look.

On top of all of that, my sink or my dishwasher or both are leaking. The maintenance guy told me that it was leaking from the backsplash, but I don't believe it. Kenny is going to come fix it for me sometime today. Hooray for connections.