Inside the Head of a TV Junkie

I can’t believe it! I’ve actually caught up on all my “must see” shows! Amazing. I still have tons of stuff on my TiVo but they’re not things that I need to see.

Tomorrow I will be seeing an advance screening of Juno. I will try to post a review here but you can always catch it on facebook.

So, it turns out that my neighbor was selling Meth. Good times right? Well, the homeowner is having trouble keeping them out of the house so I’ve been recruited to be the snitch. Awesome. At least they weren’t making it there, little things to be thankful for. As of right now, I have no neighbor (just like I like it) and I probably won’t be getting one for a while (a huge plus). I’ll keep you all posted if anything new happens.

I was thinking about some things recently and so now I’m posting random stuff tonight.

I have been going over some places that I frequently visit here in the Valley and I decided to plot them out on a MyMaps by Google Maps. Here’s a screen shot below, click for full size. I sure do get around this place! The markers show places like work, shopping, friends and things of that nature.

Other news, I went to Target on Black Friday. I’m insane, I know. I went specifically to buy a Christmas gift that was at a price I couldn’t pass up. Unfortunately, getting to Target at 4.55am was not early enough. Oh well, now the real bargain hunt begins! Oh, have I mentioned how much I dislike gift shopping?

Recently, I have started making a list of unique places to eat here in the GPA (Greater Phoenix Area). I am going to try and shy away from the chains for a bit. I’m sure there are some really great places here that I just haven’t found. This should be an interesting project and I will post updates as I visit new and different places.

Another project I’m currently working on is ripping all my DVDs to my computer for on demand streaming to my XBox 360. On average, it takes about 3 hours to rip a DVD to disk in the format that will play on the XBox 360. Not the fastest thing ever, but I’ll get there eventually… 8 down, unknown number to go.

Check the song I was listening to as I began this post… it’s totally fitting at the moment.

No, this is not going to be your typical “what I’m thankful for” post. I find those to be annoying. Instead, this will be a post of saying “thanks” to those of you who have done more for me this past year than I can even put into words. (fuck, I’m already tearing up and I haven’t even started!)

Jennifer - Thank you for being there for me. Thank you for comforting me. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you for loving me. You’re the greatest, sis!

Regina - Thank you for being there whenever I needed someone to talk to. Thank you for understanding. Thank you for being so supportive. Thank you for making me laugh when I needed it most.

Sabrina - Thank you for being concerned. Thank you for inviting me to forget about life, even if only for the weekend. Thank you for sharing more about yourself with me. Thank you for helping me to better understand myself.

Adam - Thank you for our IM chats. Thank you for distracting me from the craziness that is life. Thank you for listening to me in a way that no one else in our family really can.

Stacey - Thank you for letting me call you in the middle of the night. Thank you for giving me advice. Thank you for caring.

Jason - Thank you for being a genuine friend. Thank you for all of our conversations.

Sylvia - Thank you for being there during my most difficult times. Thank you for listening to me whine and bitch. Thank you for all of your advice.

Hollie - Thank you for standing by me all this time. Thank you for being there when I needed someone to talk to. Thank you for driving me home.

Erin Kate - Thank you for the stimulating conversation. Thank you for being my number one movie buddy. Thank you for sharing your successes and failures with me.

Erin - Thank you for the good times at sporting events. Thank you for coming to all those concerts with me. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being my communication to others I may have lost touch with.

Rachel - Thank you for always being there for me. Thank you for enjoying many of the same things I do. Thank you for our long phone conversations. Thank you for hanging out when you visit.

Jenie - Thank you for all your stories. Thank you for making office life more interesting.

Dad - Thank you for being there for me whenever I needed you. Thank you for just listening. You have no idea how much I appreciate the trust you had in me. Thank you for giving me a place to live when I needed it. Thank you for being my chauffeur, my grocery shopping buddy, and my free laundromat. Thank you for keeping me on the right track and telling me when I was wrong. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions with me. Thank you for allowing me to get to know you. Thank you for being positive, even when things were really bad. Thank you for loving me. I will miss you so much.

And to everyone else who has been there for me & my family over these past three, very difficult months… THANK YOU!

So! Guess who was evicted by the cops today? That would be my neighbor! Christmas has come early for me! Thank goodness!! No more crazy bass for me. I’m so happy, you have no idea.

This week is semi busy, which is strange given that it’s a holiday week. Work is kind of slow but also hectic. I know, it makes no sense but that’s how it is. I go into work, expecting to get out early and I end up staying until at least 5 if not just a bit longer.

Ok, so let’s see what else…

Oh, my stupid dryer is broken so that sucks. Now I have to do laundry at my mom’s house. I guess it’s better than going to the laundromat but still inconvenient. Hopefully it’ll be all fixed and ready to go next week.

Also, given that this weekend is the first weekend after Thanksgiving, I have to put out my decorations. If I want to do that, I need to clean my house. So, it’s time for fall cleaning (which I’m not looking forward to) and then setup of all my stuff. I don’t really have all that but it does seem like a lot when you’re hauling it all upstairs.

Ok, we’re done for now. I think I will post some items about movies I’ve seen recently. Until then…

This song… wow.

So, some of you hve heard this already, but some have not. I figure it’s high time I wrote down the story for posterity. Here we go…

Ok, so back at the end of August, the house adjoining mine became occupied. This is unfortunate news for me given that I was getting used to having no one living next door. So, my new neighbor came over to introduce himself. The following dreaded words came out of his mouth… “I’m a musician and if it’s ever too loud, please let me know” OH CRAP! Right then and there I told him “It’s going to be too loud, these walls are like paper.”

Flash forward to a few weeks later… maybe a total of a week. The music, imagine this, is too freaking loud. Is it the music? Not really, it’s the GD bass. The sound reverbs right through the wall and shakes shit in my house. No good! So, I call my neighbor and, of course, he doesn’t answer because he can’t hear his damn phone ring. An hour or so later, he calls back and asks “is it too loud?” I just simply answer yes. I tell him it’s not hte music so much as the bass. He says he’ll turn it down… you think that’d be the end of it… if only!

Flash forward another week. It’s a Monday night at 11pm and things are shaking once again in my house. I call him again and once he calls me back, I tell him it’s too loud for 11pm on a weeknight. “oh, sorry man.” You’d think this would be it??

One more week goes by, it’s again a Monday night, but this time about 7pm. Holy hell, WTF! Why oh why would this ever be an acceptable level when there is a shared wall involved?? Jesus! I call, he calls back. I say, “That is just entirely too loud. The bass is shaking items on my walls and vibrating my stairs.” “Oh man, I’m sorry. I think I’m going to move my stuff down to the back bedroom, do you think that would help?” “Well, we can give it a try, but I’m telling you, the bass just comes right through the walls as though we’re living in the same house, because esentially we are.”

Almost 3 weeks go by, not too bad. I know he’s playing music but I can’t hear the bass or anything like that. Good. All done… right? WRONG!!!

October… first Saturday morning of the month… 7am… Hmmm… strange, why did I wake up so early on a Saturday? Very strange indeed. Oh, it’s this loud bass that is shaking things in my house, the walls, the mirror in the bathroom, the glasses in my kitchen, my stairs… OH MY GOD. Well, I go and knock on his door… but NOPE, why would he be able to hear me? I figure, what the heck, I’m leaving in a few mins anyway for errands, I’ll let it be. Bad idea… the music went all day, even after I returned. The bass is so fucking loud. I swear, and he can’t even hear my knocking. It stops at 8pm but I am leaving at that time so I don’t go over there to talk to him. I get home later that evening and it’s quiet so no worries. OH SHIT… Sunday 7am… again! Holy mother of god! So I go over there and ring the door bell, over and over and over again. He finally sends his friend down… “Is it too loud?” Wow… jesus. I just shake my head (given i’m half asleep still) and go back home. The rest of the day, it’s quiet. All good, finally.

NOPE. Just this past weekend… Sunday afternoon. Wow, again with the level that is in NO way accepable in a shared wall situation! Jesus Christ! I go over and knock and ring… no answer, he can’t hear me. I wait about 2 hours and it ends and I go over. Ring the bell, his dog barks, ring the bell again… dog barks more… ring even more.. like a crazy person would ring a bell… NO ONE ANSWERS. That just about sends me over the edge! I’m soooo pissed at this point. No more sound the rest of the day, so it’s all good. This whole week, the bass is just at a level that is too much. Tonight I went over and told him it was too loud. Hopefully he gets the message. We’ll see. I’m starting to keep track and I’m going to report him to the HOA if I have to. This is getting crazy.

Here’s my biggest beef about this whole thing. If you’re trying to be considerate of your neighbors and ask me to tell you when it’s too loud, then respect me when I say it is too loud. Why would you ever have the bass at that level again? Why? Common sense, right? Common courtesy, right? WTF. Maybe I was just brought up better? All I know is that all hell will break loose soon if he doesn’t keep it down. I’m tired of feeling like I live in a concert venue. I should be able to enjoy my time at home bass shaking free.

What are your thoughts? Ever had to deal with a loud neighbor? How’d you do it? What was your tactics? Any advice? Would I be in the wrong to move the whole thing to the next level?? Comments welcome!