Month: April 2017

Apartment Life – The hillbillies

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My bedroom window overlooks one of the parking lots in our building and there is way more action there than if I am looking off of the lanai. The bummer is the window has glass slats and a screen so my view isn’t ideal for pictures and some of this stuff has to be seen to believe. I can see all the lanais of the people that live in the building next to mine from the bedroom window too. Most of the people are pretty mellow because they are old. The only thing that happens with them is the ambulance/fire department are here a few times a month.  In the building next door, ground floor and the closest to the street there are some people living who we call the hillbillies.  The apartment is the same size as ours and we live in studio/1 bedroom. So basically a large room divided by wood doors with a kitchen and bathroom attached. I always know the dad is coming home because his car is super squeaky,  It’s actually an SUV but it’s only 2 doors. The first time we saw all of them pile out of the car was funny, like 10 clowns coming out of a mini car. Their family consists of the dad and mom (she was gone for about 1 year,  she’s back now). Two older kids (a young man (his girlfriend) and a young lady) prob 19-20. Twin boys about 11, a daughter about 10 and the baby (she’s like 3 now). They all live in the apartment. I heard our landlord is letting them stay there till the dad saves enough money to move the family out. The older son doesn’t work, his girlfriend does and so does the older daughter. We are always so curious where they all sleep. The dad pulled up the other day in a Chrysler 300. He has to park it on the street so he’s feeding the meter for it. So now they have two cars, he keeps driving the squeaky car so maybe he is watching it for someone? The dad works construction and they all seem pretty happy. It’s very “family” over here and I like it.  I appreciate it, I miss mine.

The apartment they live in is the same size as ours and we live in studio/1 bedroom. So basically a large room divided by wood doors with a kitchen and bathroom attached. I always know the dad is coming home because his car is super squeaky,  It’s actually an SUV but it’s only 2 doors. The first time we saw all of them pile out of the car was funny, like 10 clowns coming out of a mini car. Their family consists of the dad and mom (she was gone for about 1 year,  she’s back now). Two older kids (a young man (his girlfriend) and a young lady) prob 19-20. Twin boys about 11, a daughter about 10 and the baby (she’s like 3 now). They all live in the apartment. I heard our landlord is letting them stay there till the dad saves enough money to move the family out. The older son doesn’t work, his girlfriend does and so does the older daughter. We are always so curious where they all sleep. The dad pulled up the other day in a Chrysler 300. He has to park it on the street so he’s feeding the meter for it. So now they have two cars, he keeps driving the squeaky car so maybe he is watching it for someone? The dad works construction here in town. He’ll come home and they will all pile into the car to go grocery shop together. I think it’s pretty cool to see how other people live.  It helps me accept and appreciate the differences.  The dad is always smiling and I never hear them yelling or fighting. That’s a lot more than I can say about other families I know who don’t even live together.

Apartment Life – keeps things interesting.

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I haven’t been losing any sleep lately from the paper lady. Only because the fan is on all night right by my head. The landlord put a note on her door that said she needs to park elsewhere (if she’s working) from 10pm-6am. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request. Apparently, she does since she isn’t following the rules. The real test will be Sunday, if that shit wakes us up again, it’s not going to be good.

There are 2 apartments on the top floor of the building, I live in one with my boyfriend, Dallas and this guy,  John,  lives across the way.  If I open my front door, I see his front door.  When we first moved in, our landlord was concerned we might not want the apartment because of John. We already knew John from around town. He rides his bike around yelling obscenities and talking to himself. He scares people. My landlord told us he is the only person on the island that will rent to him. Dallas heard (from one of the delivery drivers at work) that when John was young his dad lit him on fire. He has burns all over his body. We don’t think it’s strange that he’s mad at the world because he’s been given a shitty ass card in life. I say Hi every time I see him on the stairs, he never says anything back.  Once he came to the door and asked if we had any aspirin, I gave him some and figured he would say Hi after that but he didn’t. Sometimes he looks out the window and just talks really loud about strange things and it bothers the neighbors. Interestingly enough, we don’t hear him. I don’t know if it’s because he’s next door or what but I’m glad we don’t hear him.  Anyway, last week Dallas overheard some guy talking to another one of my neighbors, he was saying if he finds out who is dealing drugs to his kid,  he’s gonna kick their ass.  I know a few people in the building sell weed so we were curious who it was.  So today Dallas comes home and tells me he heard that John is selling his prescribed oxycontin. Apparently one of the kids who he sold to is not doing well at all and that’s why the guy who was talking to my neighbor is so angry.  WTH? How did this even happen?  I find it baffling because he is so scary and unapproachable. I try to remember how I was when I was young and do recall some shady ass people we would hang out with for drugs. I hope the guy’s kid recovers.

 

 

 

Apartment Life

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We moved into our apartment building 11/2015.  I love it here. It’s close to everything in town and it’s a very interesting community.  This was a last minute find, we were 30 minutes away from signing a lease in Honolulu.  I told our previous landlady, Jen we were on our way to sign the lease in Honolulu and she almost had a coronary.  She wanted us to stay in Kailua and so did we.  She had me hop in her minivan and we drove down the street to the building her mom lives in.  Jeff, the building owner was in and after Jen talked to him for a few minutes we had a place to live. Our place is small but we have a large lanai that looks over Kailua Marsh and the Ko’olau mountains. The rent is also $600 less than we were paying before and water is included. Jeff is a great guy and helps out a lot of people. Some of the people he rents to are people who have fallen on hard times and need some help to get them back on their feet. There are also some really old folks, it’s not unusual to see an ambulance. We also have a few people that are not supposed to be drinking.  All in all, we have a lot of interesting people who live here. We have given some of the people nicknames because we don’t know their real names. The apartments are small 1 bedroom places, some have lanais and the ones that don’t have a little more space inside. We get along well with everyone and Jeff tells us we are his “normal” tenants.

The apartments are small 1 bedroom places, some have lanais and the ones that don’t have a little more space inside. We get along well with everyone and Jeff tells us we are his “normal” tenants. We don’t complain, we are quiet and we pay our rent on time.

A couple weeks ago Jeff asked if I could move my parking space down one, closer to the street. Everyone who was parked moved their space over to leave an open spot because he needed to have a spot for handicap parking.  The wife of the guy on the bottom floor who was parked on the other side of the building moved her car into the handicap space. She uses a cane and she is a rather large lady, super jovial and friendly.

All was well until one morning last week.  Our bedroom overlooks the parking lot and on this particular morning, I was woken up about 3:15 am by rustling outside the window. We are on the 3rd floor so noise carries. I look out the window and see our friend, in her minivan putting newspapers into plastic bags. A few minutes later, ding, ding, ding from the car door because her seat belt isn’t on. I know she has a paper route. We used to see her on Saturday night (on the other side) getting the papers ready for the next day. The next morning, I have woken up again. Same rustling and the freaking car door ding.

So the next day I see my neighbor Steven, his apartment is on the ground floor, the nose of her car is facing his windows. He looked like shit and let me know he had been woken up every morning because she sits in her front seat and puts the papers in plastic bags and then takes off to do her route. He also told me he asked her if she could do the papers the night before or park somewhere else to put them in the plastic. He also told me (and Jeff confirmed) that they only reason she had to move her car is because the neighbor on the other side complained about the same thing.  He asked her if she could go back to doing the papers the night before. She didn’t. He ended up having to get a restraining order and the cops came out to serve it and that’s why she’s now parked on our side.  I am in shock because I can’t believe someone, who we thought was a nice person would be such an asshole. She has NO intent of moving her car in the morning and won’t do it the night before. Saturday the papers were in the car all day and Sunday morning at 3:15 am she is at it again.  She told Jeff she “doesn’t give a rat’s ass” if it bothers anyone.

I am not sure what we are going to do. We may have to do the restraining order too. It’s unbelievable to me that she is so disrespectful.  Her adult daughter and grandchild are living with her and her husband. Great job on being an example.  I am a food broker and I have given her and her family so much free food over the past year.  Now it just makes me angry so I try to avoid seeing these people and it sucks because her husband is so nice.