A few friday random thoughts...

Well, for the past week we've been having some nice cool weather, that makes for great "sleeping weather" (nice and cool in the evening). But... That means I'm back to being disturbed by my neighbor across the courtyard from me who has her alarm clock radio set to go off about an hour before I get up. It's actually not so bad that I mind waking up an hour ahead of time, but more of the fact that I'm forced to listen to her radio station. And I feel like she's invading my space. I've not taken that step of writing a letter to my apartment management, but I will this weekend. I don't expect it to work actually, but it can't hurt either. It's also MOST frustrating to me because I do not understand how someone can be so inconsiderate. I consider myself very considerate of other people. What goes through this person's mind when she sets the volume on her alarm clock? Is it malice? (screw those other sleeping people). It can't be ignorance because I already asked her to turn the volume down. Is it her thinking that I'm infringing upon her "right" to have an alarm clock? I just don't get it.
BUT... in struggling with this all week, I can to an epiphany one night while watching a tv show (probably cspan but I don't recall). It was talking about violence and race. Then I realized... It's not so much race, but a class issue... If I were rich, I would not live in a small apartment. I'd live in a house, and my neighbor would be further away from me. What if all of the violence in our society is simply because we are living so close together that we get on each other's nerves to the point where we're on the verge of snapping? I know, this is an over simplication, and some people are actually distrubed and enjoy hurting another person, but I bet most of the people are drivin to fits of rage due to their being aggravated by their environment. Just a thought... what if it were that simple. I'd love to see a graphic that would map the violent acts overlayed onto a map of the USA.

In addition to this, I got home from my photography meeting on Wed night around 9:30. I got home and opened up my windows to cool the place down. Well about 10pm, I hear laughing and some loud music playing from out front of my apartment in the parking lot. There are about 4-5 spanish speaking guys just hanging out, drinking beer, and playing their car stereo rather loud. Again, what should a person do in this case? If I call the cops, they'll just brush me off (They did it before). I could close my windows, but this is a pain for me. So I got a little fed up and went downstairs. I walked out onto my sidewalk, and just stood there looking at them. I didn't want to get into a conversation/confrontation with them (not even sure if they spoke english). Eventually one of them saw me and then he kept looking over (I guess trying to figure out why I was just standing there looking at them). He must have said something to one of the other guys, because then he started glancing over. Finally, my mental telepathy must have kicked in, because the one guy got up and went over and turned the music down just a tiny bit. I waited just a little longer, and just stared. Finally, I turned, and went into my apartment. It was still too loud for me, but at least they made an effort. I figured I'd give them until 11pm before I called the cops. About 10:50, the all left. So score one for me I guess.

Well, I went off on a rant here and now I forgot the other random thoughts I was going to post here. Oh well.