Neighbor from Hell

Running into the Talker yesterday, I saw how tired and worried looking she's become, as the result of an ongoing problem with her new neighbor.

For purposes of the blog, let’s call this neighbor "Karen". That’s not her real name, but a Karen is what she appears to be — using her frailty and the color of her skin as a weapon.

After the long-time resident of that unit beneath the Talker’s unit passed away, Karen moved in and from Day 1 has done nothing but complain.

She’s complained to and about the Talker — that the Talker and her severely disabled brother make too much noise going up the stairs, down the stairs. She’s complained about the sound of music, the noise she says she can hear when Talker is riding the indoor bike, everything and anything.

Telling the Talker that she is sick, needs peace and quiet, the Talker says she’s been walking on eggshells trying to accommodate and not disturb the Karen.

My take on "I’m sick, need peace and quiet" is that’s a personal problem, has nothing to do with the Talker, and that perhaps Karen should book a private wing somewhere rather than in this community with others.

At any rate, Karen has involved Management in her complaints about the Talker.

Assistant Manager contacted Talker. Talker said, because of the constant complaints, she’s no longer happy or comfortable in her own space, that maybe she should move.

Assistant Manager told her "Oh no. Don’t do that" and concluded that, inasmuch as there were no complaints from the prior resident in that unit, the problem must be the Karen, and that was that.

Running into the Talker yesterday, I asked how it was going, if Management had handled the issue, quelled the Karen.

The answer was "no", that the situation is making her ill and has gotten to the point where she’s thinking of booking time in a hotel so she can get some rest.

She also said there had been an incident at the gate where her disabled brother — who can walk, can say "Hi", but otherwise is like a child, was coming back in. Karen was at the gate, confronted the brother who, being an adult with a child's mentality became afraid.

Fortunately, another resident came along, stepped in, read Karen the riot act, "That’s my neighbor’s brother and how dare you" yada yada yada.

Good on that resident say I.

The incident was reported to Management and whatever the outcome of that was evidently angered Karen, because she used her frailness — "I'm sick, need peace and quiet" and her skin color to get the police involved.

The night before, 10:30 p.m., the police showed up at the Talker’s door in response to Karen calling them about the Talker supposedly making too much noise upstairs — "Stomping on the floor".

I can’t believe the cops showed up on that kind of call.

I also couldn’t believe it when the Talker said the cop chastised her for stomping, advised her "Your neighbor can sue you for what you’re doing".

WTF kind of cop bull crap is that?

I asked the Talker if she set the cop straight about bending over backwards to accommodate Karen — no music, TV down low, no indoor biking, staying away from home as much as possible, walking on eggshells, that the woman was a Karen and she said "No. I just said okay".

That was weak. Can’t respect not standing up for herself, but it’s her way to allow herself to be the victim, a martyr, "You're too nice" is what I told her, and it’s beginning to show in the way the life is draining from her body, how she's now the one becoming sick.

Upon Manager No. 9’s learning the cops were called, she asked the Talker if she would consider moving to a downstairs unit.

She said "no" because she would not feel safe downstairs as she keeps her patio window open at night to get fresh air, to which I pointed out how unsafe that is and outlined all the ways a determined criminal can get up to the balcony, enter that open window.

With the Talker saying "no" to moving downstairs, what with Karen complaining about upstairs, the police being involved, No. 9 said, "I’ll have to talk to Corporate about this".

Oh Snap! So now Corporate is involved.

The rule as I know it is that if two neighbors cannot get along, both are asked to leave or suffer eviction. Consequently, if I were the Talker, I’d accept the offer to move to a downstairs unit and then leave Management to deal with the consequences when Karen began complaining about the next resident — which she surely would. Maybe not, depending on their skin color, but that’s something we can’t know for sure until we see it played out.

There’s to be a meeting between No. 9, Karen, the Talker and someone from Corporate. We should know by end of the week how this will end.

They relaxed the rule for Handsome Man — let him keep his unit (though I’ve not seen him or been able to confirm it to be true that he’s still living here), so maybe they’ll relax the rule and let the two feuding neighbors remain … if one of them is willing to relocate elsewhere on the property.

In other news, Twin 1 has a nice mention in February’s Cosmopolitan.

I was a Cosmo girl during the years of Helen Gurley Brown, but haven’t purchased or even seen the mag for sale since then.

So, unable to find the story online, I went looking for a Cosmo. No luck finding one at three different supermarkets, a couple drug stores, liquor stores, even Barnes and Nobel. I ended up ordering a copy from an online emporium at the inflated price of $18 for a $4.99 mag.

At any rate, it's a good spread, upbeat and just the facts.