The Egyptian Way :: Neighbors

The Egyptian Way :: Neighbors

This is my audio entry to the Third Coast International Audio Festival's Short Docs Competition. There were some rules and requirements, but it was lots of fun.

Used Audacity for the audio editing. Also, some of the sound was provided by my neighbor Roshy Zangeneh.
 

Elder Abuse

I'm sort of dealing w/an elder abuse situation. No, I'm not the elder or the abuser. Thanks for asking. But I've ranted before about my noisy neighbors. Well, months later and it is still much of the same.

My neighbors are married and have been for 60 some years (so the wife tells me). So when I say elder I am talking 96 (him) and 80 something (her). The walls are thin and they are loud; they can't hear one another, but I can hear them clearly (but that works in my favor, I can turn the music or TV up load and they probably can't hear me either).

Problem is they talk loud, they argue louder. I could tell you what they say when they argue, but they speak another language and I can't always make out the the crux of the fighting words. But sometimes I hear more than words like things being tossed and what not.

I have called the police on them more than once. At first I felt guilty about calling the police on the elderly. But you never know how serious something is. At first, I just wanted to get some peaceful rest, but now, I am genuinely concerned about both of them.

He is obviously emotionally abusing her, but he also gets physical. Yep, I saw the bruise marks (though I guess the marks could have come from something else, huh?). Point is, every time I've gotten up recently to see about the commotion that I can't sleep through, the police are already there.

Problem ... he has Alzheimer's Disease and it is only getting worse. She is reluctant to commit him to the hospital. I can see the difficulty in making that decision. But ...

Birthday Bliss

So here is the rundown for how I spent my birthday:

• woke up to noisy neighbors
• officially woke up to NPR on the radio
• aerobic work out for about 25 minutes
• read USA Today
• ate wheat toast w/butter and peach jam for breakfast
• slight headache
• wore my Ann Taylor black shirt dress w/sandals
• took the top off of the Jeep (one of the day's highlights and cruising the town)
• ran to campus briefly
• brought a pair of $9 shorts @ Steve & Barry's (I hope they do not go out of biz)
• came home to a package from CARDS Magazine (I'm in the Aug o8 issue)
• took a short nap
• checked snail mail: another package (large) and birthday cards
• arranged an appt to sell clothes listed on Craigslist ($20)
• ate Wendy's :-( poor planning on my part
• went rollerblading on the city street - awesome (one of the day's highlights)
• edited and distributed the CleveEvents list (I am way too dedicated to that list)

The details: the large package came from my best bud Baer! Included a t-shirt, well, specifically an Orgeon Public Broadcasting (OPB) women's t-shirt. Lovely. Along w/some shortbread squares. Tasty. Some papers for card making. Crafty. and some other goodies.

Lots of emails, text messages, wall posts on Facebook and phone calls w/birthday wishes. Bliss indeed.

The celebration of life continues ... thanks for the love.

Incredibly Annoying Reasons Why I Can't Sleep!

The title says it all:

• elderly neighbors who can hear each other argue, but I can hear them CLEARLY! It may seem unreasonable, and uncaring but I've called the police on them more than once.
  
• upstairs neighbor who must put on her heels from the time she wakes in the morning @ 6 a.m.-ish and clip clops up and down the hall all morning until 8 a.m.-ish; am I the only one who takes off her shoes when entering the house and don't put them on until I leave the house?
• trains ... damn trains
• running water - I can actually hear the water running through the pipes in my building
• The refrigerator - love the food inside, but sometimes the drone keeps me from dreaming
  
• The sound of the heat coming and on and then turning off, coming on and then off ...
  
• The sound of the helicopter landing at the hospital across the street

This girl is mad and sleep deprived ... ask me when I'm moving? In a few weeks ... the countdown is on.