Haven't felt like there was much to blog about until I was visiting a neighbor today and got the idea of doing a running soap opera about this apartment complex which is called "Rivers Edge" -- both in reality and for my blog.
We've lived in this building longer than any of the other tenants now, and Steve's known as The Mayor since he's usually got the dirt on everyone, tenants, owners and managers. We live in the building by the water which has ten apartments, all two bedroom with a washer and dryer. There are two end units in this building which are more like condos and rent for more as well. Those have two bedrooms as well, but one of them is up a flight of stairs where the master bedroom is huge and they have a bathroom upstairs as well. We thought about taking one of those apartments until we heard what tenants have been paying for A/C in the summer to cool that upstairs area and it was outrageous so we decided to stay where we are.
One of the condo-type units is currently occupied by a couple who I'll call Mary and Larry. Mary's husband was killed by a drunk driver about a year ago and besides her boyfriend living with her, she also has a ten-year-old daughter who shall be known as Alice. Larry was a friend of Mary's late husband and no one can stand him except Mary. He's the first person I've ever known who actually has yellow eyes! No, not amber but yellow! Larry and Mary moved into this building shortly before Christmas; Larry proceeded to get really, really drunk on New Year's Eve and threatened our maintenance man, Chris, for no apparent reason. The cops were called and they made Larry apologize to Chris.
A couple of weeks ago we heard all kinds of yelling outside and went out to find two cops outside Mary's door while Larry was carrying out all his possessions in between yelling at both she and the cops. We approached Mary to see if she was okay and she couldn't stop crying and talking about what a jerk he was. Three days later he was back and there seems to be relative peace since then.
Two new female tenants moved in next door this week -- we're not sure if they're gay or not, but we don't particularly care anyway. They seem like really nice folks in any event.
There are also two women living on the other side of us who everyone hates. They're loud and obnoxious and several calls have been made to the local authorities regarding noise disturbances from their apartment. I'll call them Thelma and Louise. The maintenance man delivered a final notice of eviction to them this week due to their constant noise which has thus far not resulted in their vacating the premises. We'll just keep our fingers crossed...
Downstairs there's a really nice couple, Jason and Talia, who have two young kids. They're really great people too and very peaceful.
Then there's Leo and Bionett -- everyone likes Leo 'cause he's just a good guy. Bionett has a good heart but she's just plain nuts. She's a hypochondriac like I've never known before and she always thinks she has one disease or another. They're not married but have known each other since grade school in Brooklyn. Steve and I both dread it when there's knock on our door fearing it might be Bionett. She's really hard to get rid of too. She is currently in school to allegedly become a crime scene investigator which I can't imagine since she'll have to deal with bodies or body parts of some kind. She has the attention span of a plant so I don't know how she does so well in school. Leo and Bionett have a blowout at least monthly which provides great entertainment for all of us since they tend to broadcast their grievances.
That leaves our new friends, Jodi and Greg. They're in their 50's and have both survived difficult cancers -- Jodi survived ovarian cancer, and Greg nearly died from but survived colon cancer a few years back. He now has leukemia and is scheduled for a bone marrow transplant at the end of this month. They're both very funny, bright and sweet and we've grown to really care about both of them. I've been giving Greg his injections of Neupogen this past week 'cause Jodi gets too nervous. The transplant is his last hope for surviving this disease. The other night we were visiting them and I'd just gotten over some kind of flu or something. Greg asked me how I was feeling and I told him I felt guilty complaining about a stupid virus when he had something more serious. He said "Oh that's just great. Now I have to feel guilty about having this disease" and laughed. They both have really good coping skills in different ways, and they both readily admit their fears about this procedure. This poor guy has been poked and prodded more in the past year than most of us will ever be in a lifetime! If you have a higher power of any kind, please ask that they get strength to deal with this.
