Excuse me, but I pay to live here.
Okay, so I live in an apartment complex near campus. It’s three stories, and four apartments to a floor, with two to three bedrooms per apartment. There’s a big kitchen, a nice commons room, every room is different. One has the biggest room, one has the biggest closet, and one has the biggest bathroom. For instance, I have the biggest bedroom, the smallest closet, and a medium bathroom. The bedrooms each come with a mattress, boxspring, chest of drawers, desk, chair, nightstand, cable outlet, power outlets, shower curtain rod, etc. The commons area has a suede chair, suede sofa, coffee table, end table, dining table with four chairs, cable outlet, and power outlets. There’s a washer, a dryer, a microwave, a refrigerator, an oven, a stove, a sink with a disposal, a circuit breaker box, a broom/storage closet, garbage services… Utilities included. It’s a really nice place with a pool, a gym, a set of tanning beds, grocery bingo, pool parties, events, a fire pit, a volleyball court, and it’s gated. I live on the bottom floor with two roommates and my dog for $470, that’s including pet rent and utilities and everything else. But when you renew your lease, you also pay a pet deposit of $250.
This is the place everyone wants to live. Everyone comes to use the pool and hang out with friends. People have their parties on the weekends, but are respectful of neighbors and remain mindful of the set quiet hours. I’m not much for partying… Well, that was a lie. Yes I am. I like to party. Homecoming was this week, and I was partying it up. But not at my apartment because I know some people like to sleep at 2:00am and some people have to study in peace and quiet. So I went out to other places.
So it’s a tightknit little community, and everyone knows everyone. I happen to know the people that live right upstairs from me. It’s three girls I know from uni, and they’re pretty cool. I like them, I like being around them, but I’m not close with them or anything. On the other hand, I have beef with them for one simple little thing:
They sound like mother effing cattle with concrete blocks strapped to their feet. In the morning, during the day, at night. While I’m sleeping, while I’m studying, while I’m showering, while I’m eating, while I’m watching a movie, while I’m on the phone, while I’m just sitting here staring at the wall. It’s all I hear. It shakes my walls, it rattles my blinds, and occasionally, dust falls from the ceiling. I’ve had the batteries fall out of my smoke detector before! When she and her roommates are getting ready for a night on the town, they blare their music and jump around and scream and shout and sing. They have loud obnoxious parties at all hours of the night. They slam things around in the kitchen and bedroom, and I can hear practically every word they say. And yet, I have never said anything.
A couple of weeks ago, one of these girls who claims that her room is right above mine texted me to complain about my puppy. She said that he whines all day and all night and that she can’t sleep or study. I apologized to her and told her that he is just a puppy, and puppies occasionally whine. On the other hand, I am home a lot, and I happen to know my puppy is very well potty trained and will only whine when he has to go outside to potty. This usually happens when I am first getting up in the morning, or when I come home from class, if I don’t wake him up first and take him before he has the chance to whine. Even my roommates, who are here when I am not, have attested to the fact that my pup
barely utters a noise. And if they do happen to hear him start to whine, they’re awesome enough to take him out for me. I explained every bit of this to the girl upstairs, and what does she say to me? “Well, something’s gotta give because this is driving me up the wall.”
I refrained from telling her about the stomping and slamming of things around. I simply told her that I was sorry she felt like she couldn’t handle my dog’s supposed noise, but there wasn’t much I could do until he got older and grew out of the whining some. She asked me to keep him in my roommates’ rooms, or the living room, or something. I apologized and told her that wasn’t fair to my roommates whether they had a problem with him or not, and that I was trying to keep him more quiet for her. She never replied.
Today, she made the comment “I just love waking up to an annoying howling dog every morning. Just love it.” So I texted her and told her again that I was sorry, but that I didn’t think shouting it around at everyone on campus today to inadvertently drop me the hint was very mature, and that I wasn’t going to feel any more compelled to work with someone who didn’t have the decency to do so much as abide by the quiet hours. She blew up on me. She went off on this rant about how if I had just been polite about it the first time, she wouldn’t be so annoyed, and that she felt sorry for my puppy. She went on to say that if I had “just apologized on behalf of [my] dog, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” Except, I did apologize. So she told me I owe her an apology for my “disrespectful attitude” and that I needed to get rid of my dog or she was going to complain to the management here.
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think I was rather polite about it, especially considering I pay $75 extra a month for my dog, and a $250 pet deposit. I hate arguing with girls. I hate hate hate it. But I hate letting anyone try and do me (or anyone else) wrong. I mean, my roommates said they would have told this girl to suck it. I think that’s a little harsh, and so all I had left to say back to here was that I tried to work with her, and after the way she has acted,
So my question is this:
Have you ever felt like you were just trying to help accommodate someone, and he/she just wasn’t thankful at all whatsoever? Or that someone you live with just plain isn’t understanding or reasonable? A friend, a family member, a neighbor, a roommate, etc…. I don’t know. What do you think? Was I an asshole? Was I reasonable?
