Up till now, I have had two ne'erdowell neighbors in my immediate surroundings: one on either side of me. There is the "stereo guy" and the "Skid Row ghetto lady." However, Skid Row ghetto lady (she's an older lady) has a HUGE amount of regularly visiting relatives though, inclusive of her homeless daughter who keeps having children (she's up to four in as many years. All homeless, all on welfare). That homeless daughter and her homeless children keep trying to shack up illegally next door, making my life a living hell because they literally come from living on the streets and do not know how to live indoors. Literally. This may sound shocking, but both adults and children are like wild animals. Again, I do mean literally. The children, for one, never stop screaming. Never. They are the most aggressive manic children I've ever encountered in my life. They do not EVER follow the adults' instructions or efforts to corral them. Ever. Of course there are several baby daddies.
The daughter is a walking "Welfare Queen" stereotype. I always thought that stereotype was a cruel, unfair depiction of poor women of color - until I met this family. And then I saw there is a savage, unfettered reality to it that is very unreasonable to ask society to shoulder without qualifications. Man, I'll never forget how this family has changed my mind on a long standing political position that I have passionately defended for most of my adult life (namely, unrestricted access to social welfare programs, esp since I now am a recipient of one - Disability.) However, now I see there does need to be parameters of some kind for these folks. Not draconian Republican parameters, but well-reasoned humanist boundaries applied with the intention of truly elevating and protecting society from the savage corrosion of a sick meta-society (cultura Americana) and a sick subculture (those experiencing lifetimes of poverty, crime, chemical dependency and severe mental illness). No more slapping a quick fix bandaid solution that does little to get at the heart of what continues to perpetuate such pockets of illness and maladaptive behavior coming from certain segments of society.
That old Skid Row ghetto lady also has several other relatives and friends that are also always stopping by kicking up a storm. There is a lot of banging and crashing, things often breaking and shattering and being dragged across the floor, slammed into the walls and screaming. Always screaming.
The Watchdogs have helped considerably, but there still are "treatment resistant" flareups from time to time by either the "stereo guy" or the "Skid Row ghetto lady."
What has occurred over this last week or two that is unthinkable is a THIRD neighbor seems to have moved in above me, overhead, at the start of September and they are now stomping and banging and scraping things around on my ceiling. I feel as though I am going to go insane because who knows how long it will take to get them in touch with better, more considerate thoughts and behavior via the Watchdog protocol. What am I going to do? I cannot endure an endless stream of crazed psychos. Me and the Elders are trying to look into some out-of-the-box solutions before I lose my mind with grief and frustration.
The fourth ongoing ne'erdowell element is out in the Courtyard or cul-de-sac where my window faces. There's a lot of Rosslyn residents there and sometimes a lot of noise that the Watchdogs and Otherside helps to treat after our lookout team, the Scouts, make a report of ongoing disruptions (everything from domestic violence incidents to loud stereo playing. And yes, we do also call 911 or security in some of those cases). Although there is the Courtyard noise, it is the two neighbors on either side of me that have been the most intensely disruptive and problematic, in part because they are situated so close to me. If there is now a new third neighbor above me, also so close to me, I just don't know how I'm going to calm and not go into full blown panic mode. It's why I've been having intense panic attacks again over the last few days and am kind of in a state of shock (so much so that I can't even sleep some nights) - because I can't believe I might have to deal with a THIRD bad neighbor.
God help me.
And finally, the last component of the Rosslyn that is disruptive is the mysterious element that you two have been told about that can occur in the middle of the night or early morning. That issue has been going on for years - it's not new - but can be very disruptive and can cause me to have a lot of anxiety as well. It's related to the old building itself and all the things that go wrong with it. Regularly. It can sneak up on me in the middle of the night or early morning when I'm trying to get close to you, Jack, and can cause me to start to have to pull away for your protection because I'll start to emanate anxiety symptoms. I get worried I'll trigger Interface anomalies for you, Jack, sweetheart, because that shit sometimes super stresses me out also and you seem Interface sensitive, too, like me. ♡ For some reason, neither the Watchdogs or the Otherside or any of us have been able to make much of a dent on that aspect of the building. It doesn't involve bad acting humans, maybe that's why. I'm not sure. :(
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Weekly update on Skid Row ghetto lady:
In related news, I found out a few days ago Skid Row ghetto lady is full blown psychotic, as in bona fide googoo gaga off her rocker. Believe it or not, there is a positive to this. I had speculated she had something like a Personality Disorder, which means you can be very resistant to following societal rules and resitrictions, but you don't necessarily have psychosis (although you can in some cases).
What allowed me to arrive at this new speculation of her mental health is that she appears to have full on visually hallucinated in front of me the other day as I was stepping out into the hallway. I ran right into her and she was surprisingly creepily nice to me. She then proceeded to ask me about a piece of furniture in the hallway that simply was not there. She kept pointing to it (the empty space) repeatedly, asking me if I wanted "the table" or not. If not, she said, was it OK that she grab it. I replied, "There is nothing there. The hallway is empty." She insisted there was a table situated right next to me. And kept wondering if I was going to claim it. I finally relented and told her she was welcome to take it. I did not want it. She was very grateful and said, "Thank you! That's very sweet of you!" And then simply walked off, NOT in any way making an attempt to grap the imaginary table. Ew, boy, I thought. So THAT'S what the problem is. The positive out of this is that if she is batshit crazy, as in has psychotic hallucinations and delusions, it means she may not have been making my life a living hell all these years on purpose, with intent. I've thought this whole time she was just cruel and vindictive. But she truly may not have been able to help herself because she does not have a firm grip on reality (her own, nor other peoples). It makes a lot of what she has said and done over the years make sense. Over the years I would repetitively ask her if she could please stop banging on the wall. She would always reply with, "I don't know what you're talking about. It's not me. It's the others." I would say, "What 'others'? The only one to this side of my apartment is you and your family." "You're the one who makes noise," she would reply. I would look at her incredulously, thinking was simply lying out of spite and stupidity. A willful ignorance just trying to be argumentative. But now, after the other day's "table" incident, I'm thinking she might very well suffer audio and visual distortions that account for a legitimate inability to register and accept the reality of her own actions. This is to say nothing of understanding said actions in the context of how they effect others, like me, her long-suffering next door neighbor.
Regardless of the underlying reason or cause, her and her family's behavior is still completely out of bounds and off the charts animalistic. It's not fit for in-doors residency. Thus, me, the Watchdogs, and the other Elders persist in our treatment. Sigh.
*the underscoring of words is a glitch of my phone.
*also, I haven't proof read this so please forgive any typos and muddled lack of clarity. I'm emotional right now so if there's anything unclear, hopefully, I can catch it later and create an addendum post, if need be. I think I'd rather just get this to press, as it were, since you guys have been so patient. ♡♡♡♡♡
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