My New Neighbor

Some of my favorite things about living in Uptown Minneapolis are:

-Relatively safe neighborhoods
-Easy access to coffee shops, bars and good food
-Many friends within walking distance
-Pretty progressive environments
-Lakes that offer a number of 5K runs or walks
-Good rental options

I usually really enjoy living where I do. My apartment is affordable, nice looking and comfortable. But the last few weeks a VERY sexually active new neighbor has been waking me up at night. Girlfriend is BUSY! It's an odd situation because I usually am awaken to "love" sounds any time between 2:30 and 5am. I'm used to living in the city. I'm used to hearing things. But this one is funny because I am woke up from a dead sleep (as early as 5am in the morning) to hear my neighbors love life.

When I vented this to a group of male and female friends I couldn't believe the response. Most of the ladies said, "Ohh God that's horrible. You should leave a nice anonymous note, letting her know it's a little noisy in the middle of the night. She probably doesn't even know they are loud." Then almost immediately the dudes replied, "don't you dare tell her you can hear them. That's rude and YOU'RE the one who's uncomfortable."

REALLY? If she was watching TV too loud at 4 in the morning I'd tell her. If she was vacuuming I'd probably storm up the stairs and demand she stops. What wouldn't I tell her this is waking me up?

This response was interesting to me. I got to wonder about the guys point. Then I wondered about the girls point. Then I got to wondering why it was so split down the middle of the sexes that girls would tell the sexually active (and noisy) neighbor "I can hear you at night and you might want to keep it down..." and the guys would rather put a pillow over their head and try to ignore it.

Last night I didn't know what to do. I decided to get up and make noise in my apartment because perhaps it would scare my neighbor if she heard someone moving around. It didn't scare them. Nothing stopped. Thumping, talking and love sounds kept flowing...

This story is to be continued...

Bill Haverchuck

I'm pretty sure I knew about 10 kids like Bill Haverchuck while I was in high school. Child of a single parent, awesome, earnest, mortified, smarter then most others, made fun of, sad, sweet, so much more then meets the eye.

This is one of the best scenes in Freaks and Geeks.

5 Facts

This was a blog entry topic a friend of mine recently did. I thought I'd steal the idea.

1. I am extremely good at getting up early -- especially under pressure.

2. A guilty pleasure of mine is celebrity gossip

3. I believe a broken heart can turn your senses upside down and is possibally the worst feeling ever. I'm serious.

4. I count calories.

5. Every morning I drink an emergen-c and every night I drink an emergen-c.

It's cold out and I'm a little stressed.

When I'm stressed out, I can't sit still. I need to walk, workout or keep moving. When I slow down I get anxious and feel like I'm a racecar in red.

Tonight I bought Diana a hot chocolate -- and she walked with me. It's freezing and she was a good friend to bundle up and walk with me. The last two nights -- I've done it alone.

But tonight was much better with company and talking a bit.

I also ran into my neighborhood friend.

I’m still pretty into deleting. I thought this might calm down after ringing in 2008 – and crossing the symbolic lines of a “new beginning.” But the deleting hasn’t calmed down. It might, actually, be worst.

I deleted an old friend. He’s terrible at returning phone calls, he’s a dreamer and traveler and is currently wandering around. I’ve emailed. I’ve left messages. I’ve texted. The response is slow and I always am ticked off until I hear from him. And then after I hear from him, I’m happy and forget about the 3 weeks of wondering why my friend is such a scrub. So I deleted him. I pride myself at always making the effort to be in touch. So it will be interested to see when I hear from him next. It will have to be by his own initiation.

My brother has been deleted for a while as well. Not much to say. He’s in a terrible place and spreads bad juju all over. I needed a break, so I’m taking one.

I also have deleted a big portion of my closet. It’s just stuff. It’s T-shirts I don’t wear. It’s clothes I wore when I was a bigger size. It’s things I think “well maybe I’ll wear that again.” It’s gone (well nearly gone, it’s in my trunk ready to go to good will).

And when I look around my apartment I wonder, “what can I sell”, “what can I give away?”, “what can I throw away?”…

The deleting still feels healthy. It feels empowering to let go of things that are heavy. I guess it concerns me, a little, that I’m deleting people. But sometimes you need people to find you, reach out to you, make you feel you are just as important to them as they are to you. You know?

I started knitting fingerless gloves. They’re pretty cute and turning out nicely. Found a good pattern.

Since a bunch of my friends are blue and happy to stay in their apartments during the winter months, I’ve found that Tony is a great winter friend. His lovely wife is a S.A.D. person in the winter and prefers early bed times – so he’s been meeting up with me during the weekend to have fun. Two weekends ago it was the crazy evening ending at Jason’s. Last night it was meeting at the Red Dragon and walking to the VFW to hear the Motorhead guy sing karaoke.

I learned that cute Nate is a closet Whitney Houston fan, as I heard him sing along to “How Will I Know?” and “Where Do Broken hearts Go?"... I also heard him sing almost every word to "Stay" by Lisa Loeb. It was fantastic.

My friend Jason said that "whatever you do as you ring in the New Year is an indication of what you’ll do all year."

This New Year’s Eve I was at a fantastic show at the Varsity Theater with two best friends, I received text messages until 4:30am from someone who wanted to “visit” me (THAT IS NOT MY JAM), I made a couple thoughtful resolutions, I deleted an old ghost from my cell phone address book, I slept soundly, I woke up, and then started the New Years Day “All Day TV” ritual.

Last year Diana, Jason and I watched back to back episodes of Project Runway and then a movie (I forget which).

This year, Diana and I watched 6 episodes of Freaks and Geeks in Jason's apartment.

Jason was sick in his bed all day and it continued into January 2nd. I’m hoping this isn’t an indication of what he’ll be doing all year.

Freaks and Geeks has got to be my new favorite show. It reminds me of My So Called Life. It’s really tragic that people didn’t appreciate these shows while they were on TV.

Victims in the cruelest PE game: Dodge ball


Bill dresses as the Bionic Woman for his last Halloween


Lindsay Weir, once a mathlete, now freak tag-along


Freaks on left, Geeks on right

Ahh the viral blogs of 2007. I watched a lot in 2007 -- I'd share them with my co-workers and then giggle.

I started this list last week.

I'll start with my very favorite and then more in no particular order.

***Otters Holding Hands***

I needed insulin after I saw this. This video makes me feel that there is hope in this mixed up world.

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Leave Britney Alone

I wish I could forget Chris Crocker, but I can't.

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CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Cebu, Philippines at THRILLER practice!

It feels a little sick to watch this.

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Wedding Thriller Dance


Same theme song...

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NORA: Practice Makes Purr-fect

I love her.

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I Got a Crush...On Obama By Obama Girl

Someone spent a lot of time on this...hmm...

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Daft Hands - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger


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Feist - 1 2 3 4

I guess this doesn't count as a viral video, but I love it... I first found it on youtube, it was on my myspace page for a while and I'd frequently click on it. It makes me happy. So it's one of my picks -- and since hardly anyone knows about my blog...that's just fine. :)