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Life has been rather stressful and depressing lately. Neighbors have been filling my apartment with loud, bass-heavy music, which makes studying, working, and resting all difficult or impossible for me. I have not been sleeping well, which has taken a toll on both my energy and my health, the latter of which has at times been a contributing factor to my lack of slumber. I have spent far too much of this semester ill, so my studies have suffered as well—a fact that will be reflected in my grades for this semester despite the fact that they will not represent my abilities or my efforts. Tax collectors have been harassing me for back taxes I could not afford to pay, refusing to work things out reasonably even though I do not even make enough money to pay all of my monthly bills; I have been making ends meet while I have been back in school only through student loans and personal loans with the occasional small grant to help with some of my education-related expenses. Enough people drive rudely and unsafely for me to encounter some of them every time I drive. Enough people are otherwise rude for me to encounter some of them every day almost everywhere I go. The loud music has quieted out front, but now someone is yelling repeatedly out back. Work has been troubling, due in no small part to the ethical concerns I wrote about in previous entries. Even my home life apart from neighbor-related issues has not been without its difficulties lately.
I wish I were not so bothered by other people's bad behavior, having plenty of other things with which to concern myself, but it is not easy to ignore bad behavior when it affects me directly.
Today, I spent a short while laying down with Pudge. I felt for the first time in a very long time unburdened by the many difficulties that have haunted my life recently. Laying down with the cat and having that feeling of relief did not last long, but I enjoyed it and it got me to thinking. Perhaps I have stumbled upon a good method for relieving the symptoms of everyday life in a geographical area that has more than its fair share of both population in general and rude population in particular: cat naps.
And I am not just talking about for me, either. Imagine if everyone took their own cat nap now and then, with or without the company of an actual cat as they prefer. Parents have children nap when they are getting unruly, so why not adults as well? I think everyone might have better manners if they were better rested.
Update 1: A matter of minutes after posting the above, the volume and booming bass of the music out front are both back up to their previously invasive, annoying levels—perhaps even beyond them, actually—but now the loud music is accompanied by more yelling in Spanish. Those rude guys should take some cat siestas (with their music off so they can rest well, of course).
Update 2: Add to the many other cross-street annoyances children screaming at the tops of their lungs. I would call the police, but experience has shown that they just don't fucking care about disturbances of the peace (nor, at least for the two rude officers who responded to a previous call, about exercising reason or courtesy themselves). I hate living on apartment row.
Update 3: I just received an e-mail from a friend and neighbor who also seems bothered by the sounds of the barrio tonight. She remembered the "feature of the world" line from one of the rude, unhelpful police officers, so at least I got some commiseration and a giggle out of tonight's neighborhood disturbances.
Update 4 (11:16pm): A neighbor called the police, two of whom we saw walking across the street and up the driveway toward the residences of our loudest neighbors. Children are still screaming outside, though.
