My Neighbors

My Neighbors

Good, Bad or Indifferent

West Chester, PA

I moved in to an apartment complex that is very social and I picked this place because it is so social.  I thought I needed to work on making more friends. But after a year in this place, I now see things with a different, more critical eye.  There are a lot of kooks in the building.

• A man walks around all the time with a cooler full of beer. He carries the cooler as if it is his purse.
• One woman claims she is a recovering alcoholic and she often is so drunk, she needs to be carried home from the bar.
• I meet people once here and then I never see them again.  I don't know if they moved or if our paths just don't pass again.
• I watched Penn State football games with two friends and I really enjoy their company.
• There are a few families with small children which must be difficult as too many of us do not change our bad behaviors to accommodate this young kids.
• A woman thinks there is a ghost in her apartment.  Edward shows up around 2  AM and fools around with the buttons on her microwave.
• There is an alpha male pack who dominate the open space with their drunken masculinity.
• A lot of people work at home here and I am filled with the perception that they don't work very hard when they are working here.
• There are many nights where several of us sit int he lounge and just chat each other up.  I like those nights.  They aren't late nights and I don't have to worry about driving in the dark after we all break up and go home.  I just walk upstairs to my apartment.
• I am part of a beer club. There are a few member who are real beer kooks.
• There is a whiskey club but it isn't very inviting to people and it doesn't  really matter to me as I do not like whiskey.
• Four women are all widows and they go out together on Friday afternoon for a drink.
• One woman earned her extra cash by cutting hoar, cleaning apartment, catering for people in the building and making lunch every day for the man with the beer cooler.
• A woman just signed a renewal lease and she has decided that she is no longer going to sleep with men in the building as "it really complicated things" for her.
• I am listening to two women talking about how to make a million dollars in a few months.  They are being lured in to a scheme from an investor.  One woman is concerned that her mother will protest this scheme.  The other friend is suggesting that she borrow $15,000 from her mother to start this scheme.
• I showed a guy my binder of junk, foreign coins that I collected over the years.  He seems to think it is worst $30,000 and wants to cut a deal to negotiate the selling of these coins.  I asked if he has any background in coins sales.  he does not.  He is just salivating at the idea of making some quick money.
• We have a large couch in the lounge with a large flat screen TV.  The younger men dont like to sit on it together because, "that's gay."
• Too many people here drink to excess every single day.  I do not know how they can function.
• One man broke in to another man's apartment and trashed it over a rumor he heard. The victim is not cooperating with the police as he doesn't want to get the perpetrator in trouble.
• One man was dating a woman last year but they broke up and moved away.  She came back and it now appears as if she may be dating a woman.  Sometimes the two of them also appear to be dating the man from last year.  However, it also appears as if the new girlfriend is also dating another man in the building.  There must be very complicated moments in their lives.