"That's the fucking truth!"
"You're a fucking idiot!"
"Shut the fuck up before I slap your ugly head!"
"Get the fuck back inside a get me a fucking beer!"

Life isn't so grand here at this upscale, expensive colony. When I moved in here two years ago, this was one of the most expensive apartment complexes in town, a gated community full of yuppies and families. You didn't have to worry about dings on your car because everyone was too careful with their imported sports cars and luxury sedans. The only noise pollution was the sounds of children laughing as they played in the playground. The couple above me was a friendly, married pair of medical professionals who were rarely home and slept all the time when they were. In a neighborhood like this, *I* was the riffraff, the young single man who had friends over until midnight to watch TV. Living here wasn't perfect; across from me was a snippy young couple who wouldn't give me the time of day, but today they would be the least of my worries.

It's been almost a year since new neighbors moved in above me and proceeded to STOMP STOMP STOMP every footstep. Near-nightly parties until the wee hours became the norm, and not just on weekends. Loud music, shuffling of furniture, and endless shouting were my companions many nights as I tried to fall asleep. While I looked forward to the anniversary of their arrival in the hopes they'd leave without renewing their lease, I couldn't help but notice a slide in the rest of the community around me. The luxury sedans were replaced by beat-up old pick-up trucks with obscene decals in the windows. The laughter gave way to throbbing bass beats and car alarms.

Tonight I came home to new neighbors above me to the side; I won't hear their stomping, but I've already heard their drunken, loud, obscene argument on the screened porch, which has been going for five hours now. They're fraternity brothers, standing in public view wearing nothing but crumpled baseball caps and low-hanging cargo shorts, waving their beer bottles as they shout their favorite four-letter word at each other from mere feet away, oblivious to foot traffic below.

On the surface, the apartments haven't changed at all. They're still immaculately maintained and cost a fortune, and you never spot a piece of litter twice. How have I wound up surrounded by obnoxious scumbags? I don't know where I'm going to go next, but I know it's going to be a house, preferably with a big lawn all around it.


Five Replies to Newer Neighbors Upstairs

Amy Austin | August 11, 2007
I'm so sorry for you, Scott... :-[

Can you see now why I can't stand to rent anymore and why I long to be back in *my own* house, even if it means buying one with ridiculous hazard insurance in Florida??? (Which is not as much the case in central Florida, btw...)

Jackie Mason | August 12, 2007
[hidden by author request]

Lori Lancaster | August 12, 2007
[hidden by author request]

Lori Lancaster | August 12, 2007
[hidden by author request]

Tony Peters | August 13, 2007
When I first started dating my wife we lived in this semi gated yuppie condo complex neighborhood in San Diego. One summer night really really late we are all trying to sleep and this guy and a girl are going at it....not a big deal except that she's one of those moaner/screamer types whole seems to take forever to cum (or he was just really bad we never found out) anyway her cries went on for a good 30 minute before I couldn't stand it anymore and yelled out the window at the top of my lungs (and I can yell LOUD, ask Amy) "Just make HER cum already so we can all go to sleep" Suddenly after a moment of quiet there is a good 30 seconds of applause from the rest of the neighbors. We never heard her again (poor woman) but we saw her for 4-5 months afterwards


Logical Operator

The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »

WGW: If It's Good Enough for Dan Marino, It's Good Enough for Me

This is more like Weight-Gain Wednesday after a week and a half with Kelly, bouncing around Sarasota restaurants and Disney World. No matter how many thousands of calories I burned walking around that theme park for three days, I'm sure I consumed twice as many, and that was just in fudge from the Main Street Confectionery. Now that I'm back and I've done some very scientific research – asking a friend whether she hated one – I have chosen NutriSystem over Medifast as the exclusive supplier of my every meal. Go »

Where the Hell I Have Been All Year, Part III

This is a long story of interest only to friends of mine and people who really want to spend fifteen minutes reading about my life, but I've been promising to reveal this secret for the better part of a year and the time has come: Kelly Lee and I were a couple again this past spring. I kept it secret because A) it was difficult to tell the friends who had supported me during her breakup that we were dating again and B) for the duration of the relationship I didn't know where it was going and I wanted to know this before I said anything. Anyway, this story is solely my point of view and may not be fair to hers. Go »

Red Carpet Saturday

Some friends of ours recently made a short film (they're officially in IMDb) that got into the Sarasota Film Festival, so Kelly and I had to check it out. It screened with eight other short family-friendly films on a Saturday morning, and there was good turnout for the two locally-made titles in the set. I enjoyed our friends' comedy and laughed along with everyone else, and I was impressed by several of the other movies too. Go »

Goodbye, Kai

I've been trying to save up for a new computer for the last few years, but bigger purchases like a wedding and medical emergencies kept consuming the funds. This past weekend, I finally broke down and bought a cheap but still quite powerful Windows 7 machine on Newegg, because I could no longer stand my old Windows XP machine. How old was it? Go »

Where the Hell I Have Been All Year, Part I

It's been a long hibernation and I'm ready to come out of the cave and see daylight again. For various reasons, I wouldn't talk about why I wasn't around much, and I didn't enjoy being secretive like that, especially since all three were sources of happiness for me. Anyway, I promised recently that I was about to come out of the closet concerning the three things that have occupied so much of my 2006, and it's time now. Go »

What's Funnier Than a Heart Attack?

Everything, but especially finding out that it's not a heart attack. The pain started after I finished my usual Tuesday dinner with my mom at 8pm. I stood up to leave, and stiffness shot up my back and across my chest. Go »