I have two police officers (one's a detective like they have on Law and Order) living right next door to me. I spent the other evening on the porch with the husband (he was waiting up for his wife). Even if I rang his bell (he works nights, so he wouldn't have been home), and his wife is a little bit of a thing, and you see, the noise was 5 minutes in length, but who the heck cares how long, it made me jump off the bed and it threw my back out. I have sciatica, so I don't jump off the bed usually.

No, there is really nothing I can do with the family upstairs. And wait until you hear this. Years ago, the parents were away and one of the daughters started a fire. So the firemen come, put out the fire, but there was a lot of water damage in my apartment which is underneath these people.

Now we have renters insurance. Of course we made a claim, the insurance adjusters came into our home, they then sent a cleaning crew to our home, they took all the clothes out (because of the smell of smoke), they cleaned our whole apartment, and my insurance paid for it.

Well, my insurance company sued the people upstairs for the amount of the cleaning and loss of our items. We didn't sue these people, my insurance company did. My husband even warned them the day after the fire. He said "we have renters insurance, and you will be getting a notice, it may take a while". We have always been friendly.

Well, two years pass by, and I don't know what the heck happened, but I walked out of my apartment, one of the daughters (and she's a lawyer no less), she is outside on the porch, I smile and say Hi, and she turns her back on me. I had no clue. I said "I beg your pardon, have I done something wrong?" See, I believe if you've slighted someone, get to the bottom of it, apologize and hopefully be done with it".

She never responded and every single day they would all (5 daughters) cut me dead in the front of the house. Now one can get a complex if this goes on and on. One day, I came home to find spit on the front of my glass storm door. I thought it was the crazy teenager who lives next door (who is now in prison for assaulting 5 people).

Seven days in a role someone spit on my front door. I would come home from shopping, wipe the spit off, go inside, and later when I opened the door, there it was again!!! Drove me crazy for 7 days. I had no clue.

Well, one day we are pulling up in front of the house (this happened when Alan was still driving), and there on the porch is one of the daughters talking to a friend and there is spit on my door. She was the youngest, about 19 at the time. I smile and say hello, she says hello. I then ask "Hon, who on earth is spitting on my front door" and she just looks at me and says "why it's me, you sued my family, what did you expect me to do"? I just looked at her, called my husband over and says 'it's her, she's the one spitting on our door". he said "why on earth are you doing this to us? she explained and he said "don't you remember, two years ago, after the fire, I told you that my renter's insurance would go after your family, we had this whole conversation". She started to cry, asked for my forgiveness, ran upstairs and got the window cleaner and started to wash my front door. I did not know what to do. I just stood there speechless (and I don't get speechless believe me). Now her mom had died a few months before (of that human form of mad cow), and I knew she was hurting. I just grabbed her and did what a mother would do. I hugged her.

She started to cry and I said "don't ever spit on my door again, and she apologized and all was well". It took her other sister a bit longer to talk to me. She just, all of a sudden, one day, started to speak to me. After all that time cutting me dead in the street.


So if you think I'm going to knock on doors, yelling and screaming that an old elderly man is turning on the tv for 5 minutes, well, they scare me with their unpredictable behavior. So we'll just buy earplugs.

Maybe this was a one time thing. I have no idea.

It's horrible when you don't own your own place, have unstable people living on top of you and you never know what you can expect.

This same 19 year old (when she was 15), had a fight with one of our neighbors. She pulled a knife. I grabbed her and pulled her into my living room and said "you don't pull knives on people, what is wrong with you, what would your parents say". She was so full of rage.

Well, now she's 27, still has 4 sisters. She takes care of the sick father (who she can't stand by the way), so I'm not making any waves.

Do I want to kill them?? Oh yeah!!! Will I do anything??? No, because I don't trust them. I'll continue to smile and hope that this was a one time occurrence.

I remember when she was 15 and played rock music all day and all night and drove us crazy. She doesn't do that anymore.

I just want some peace in my life. I don't think that's too much to ask for.

Melody