Party on

      A couple of things have been on my mind lately. One has to do with a semi-ongoing tension that exists between a couple of my neighbors. I live in an apartment building with 6 units, so when I say neighbors, I mean across the hall or upstairs, whatever. The issue in this case is basically noise related. Neighbor #1 likes to have people over on the weekend for some Rock Band sessions. This will almost always end in the old broomstick on the ceiling trick, and way before midnight. I believe that midnight is the noise reduction time in an apartment building on a weekend. Anyway, sometimes this takes place between 10:30 and 11:00 which illustrates a complete lack of tolerance, at least to me. Lo and behold the day did come that broomstick neighbor had a party. No one in the building was "invited" and by that I mean informed of this which to me is common courtesy in an apartment building; especially when you plan on pumping that amount of bass. I never hear broomstick neighbor but I did this night. The music actually ended around 12:30 or so and I had to get up early so I was happy about that. I almost wanted to say something to broomstick gal but in the end, my life was not that negatively affected. Neighbor #1 was able to slyly get her two cents in about the noise while accidentally passing broomstick on the way out, but refrained from being rude. (#1 doesn't have a natural rude bone in her body.) However, #1 does have a habit of stacking "things" outside the door of the apartment that are either trash or stuff to take to storage. Generally, things that she doesn't want to have in the apartment at the time. Her door is 5 feet from my door and now I have to look at the stuff that she doesn't want to. The thing that is interesting to me is that #1 doesn't even remotely think that this may also be a form of inconsideration. It is after all a common area. And while it does bother me, I don't feel I need to say anything because it's a battle I/we just don't need. My life is not that negatively affected by "the stuff". I just wish that people could recognize the fact that consideration and tolerance take on many forms and are neglected in many ways. Another reason I don't bring this to #1's attention is because I'm not sure that I am not currently engaged in some type of "getting on a nerve" of someone myself. In a nutshell, which I am aware this isn't, I have learned from broomstick that tolerance given is tolerance received. I've learned from #1 that sometimes we are totally unaware that the smallest of our actions sometimes do affect others. And from myself, pick your battles; is it really worth a possible misunderstanding or worse, confrontation? Usually not. I will try from now on to take a step back, think about what I'm doing and, at least until midnight, party on.