What are your neighbors up to?

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri May 01, 2020 4:44 pm

Time to get REAR WINDOW!

Our neighbors are playing a lot of basketball and working out in a makeshift outdoor gym they’ve fashioned in their backyard gazebo zone. They listen to a lot of party music out there. They’ve also moved an impressive but decrepit old sports car into the yard, presumably to tinker with. Their dog Harley hates it when I even so much as approach our shared fence, but I keep it jovial regardless. I just recently found out the patriarch of their family is a drill sergeant at the police academy. They also just got a puppy.

Our neighbors on the other side rarely go outside except to cook elaborate curries on a custom outdoor propane stove, which smell amazing. Sometimes they listen to music while doing the curries, but they’ll get stuck on a single song they like & listen to over and over. For a while that song was the theme to Zorba The Greek, which set a great mood.

GARY-19 · Post by **GARY-19** » Fri May 01, 2020 5:33 pm

Our neighbors' kids are NON-STOP SKATEBOARDING. Right in the middle of the street.

I don't really mind.

G

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Sat May 02, 2020 1:35 am

[mention]yourfriendclaire[/mention] Zorba is a strong choice.

As I said in a previous post. One of my neighbors is standing on the roof a couple (apartment) houses down and banging away at a cowbell and waving to the masses like a head of state at precisely 8:00 pm night after night.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Sat May 02, 2020 3:56 am

I love the Zorba detail.

The other day it was "warm" (a.k.a. maybe 61 degrees) and here in New England we very much have that seasonal vibe of like crawling out of our homes and blinking at the sun we had forgotten about, our skin translucent and fragile as that of the eyeless worms who live miles under the earth. So my point is when there's that first even vaguely warm day you really want to just kind of drape yourself in the yard and suck up vitamin d. So I look outside my window and see our neighbor "sunbathing" but because it's still, in reality, cold outside, she was totally swaddled. She was lying on a blanket in the yard but additionally was wrapped in a blanket up to her chin, also had a hat on. The only thing exposed were her long, very white arms. She looked like someone in a Victorian TB sanitarium. I applauded her and was inspired to do much the same thing, toddling out to our Adirondack chair and gently rolling my pants up to mid calf while being totally swaddled otherwise.

We have a neighborhood kid who is maybe 12, gender unclear, giant glasses/fluffy poof of black hair, who EVERY SINGLE DAY between roughly 3-4 o'clock walks up and down the few blocks of the neighborhood singing at the ABSOLUTE top of their lungs. like full-on wailing/yelling. NOT a "good singer" in the conventional sense of the term. Top 40 hits, usually the same song multiple days in a row. I can not overstate how loudly, unrestrainedly, and wholeheartedly they sing. It sounds like screaming. It is a level of vocalizing you could only achieve if you truly believed you were alone in the entire world. We really love it. The other day though I looked outside and saw them walking by NOT singing, leading a brand new baby puppy on a leash. What next????

the other day a birthday parade went by our house. A line of maybe 12 cars honking, with the birthday kid waving out of a sun roof throwing candy.

I REALLY like this thread concept

Post by **joni** » Sat May 02, 2020 8:53 am

Wow, the birthday parade feels so cinematic. What if that just becomes a new ritual?

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Sat May 02, 2020 8:55 am

I’ve heard of it happening in other places!

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Sat May 02, 2020 9:03 am

It is a nice thing to do for a child. Let them just play parade.

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Sat May 02, 2020 11:03 am

Last night my neighbors had a fire for Beltane and called me out right as I was going to bed. We drank wine and jumped over the fire to secure our favorable harvests i guess?

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Sat May 02, 2020 11:30 am

I want [mention]Phil[/mention] 's neighbors. That sounds amazing and important.

My neighbors are rich assholes who are trying to sell their house for over a million dollars. They aren't even home right now, they seem to be vacationing or moved into a different house they own. Their fucking landscapers come by weekly to blast power mowers and blowers over the whole thing, and I really love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JK
Mixed feelings about living in a fancy neighborhood- we live in an apartment/condo a block away from my mom's little apartment, which rules. Easy bus commute. Nice old trees. But so, so many rich white people. 90% of our neighbors seem boring as hell.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Sat May 02, 2020 11:58 am

I’m sitting in an Adirondack chair in our side yard, and some kids are out front on razor scooters. They can’t see me. One of them just excitedly pointed up at our electrical line which is wrapped up in plastic and tape from when the roofers were here and he goes “holy crap look at that janky-ass duct taped electric line!” And then he started bragging about how he “zip lines” on electric lines all the time and it infuriates him when they aren’t “safe.” He’s like 10. I love what little shits kids are!!! I should jump out and scare them. “Bullshit I say, young man!”

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Sat May 02, 2020 12:52 pm

Our neighbor is friends with the guy that owns https://www.summerlakehotsprings.com, which is closed right now, and he went down there to Quar with his friend for a while. That sounds so amazing, quarantine at your own private hot springs.

Also the stars there are amazing because there's almost no light pollution.

Very jealz.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Sat May 02, 2020 1:10 pm

Dang.

uncleboatshoes · Post by **uncleboatshoes** » Wed May 06, 2020 8:37 pm

We did some day soaking at Summer Lake last year. It was tight. Was hoping to stay there in July cause we have some reservations to stay in a Fire Lookout nearby there and was hoping to extend the trip. Hope we can still do that.

matthew · Post by **matthew** » Wed May 06, 2020 10:53 pm

None of my neighbors sing top 40 hits —

* last night someone was yellin’ “i don’t fucking care how loud i am” in the hallway around 2am (they were p loud)
* i held the door open for someone the other day and they called me “butthead” and i’ve been agonizing whether it was affectionate? mean? or ???

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Thu May 07, 2020 1:18 am

"Butthead" is a head scratcher...

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu May 07, 2020 8:13 am

Did they say, “thanks, butthead”?!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu May 07, 2020 10:21 pm

Our neighbors are playing basketball every day for HOURS it's honestly really inspiring

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri May 08, 2020 1:02 am

Are you jealous? Gonna order a hoop? Put it above your studio door? I vote yes!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri May 08, 2020 8:27 am

None of the above!!

Mostly impressed because it’s been in the mid-90s all week and they’ve gotta be sweating up a storm out there

willowowow · Post by **willowowow** » Fri May 08, 2020 9:39 am

Last evening [mention]Flossy Logs[/mention] came over. I set up camping chairs in the driveway because even though we have a small and peaceful backyard the front was where the sun was shining. I used a tape measure to ensure our chairs were properly distanced, and I prepared two lil' strawberry (fresh from the farm!) bowls and a champagne station positioned next to a fancy hand sanitizer. I had spent two days mulling over the precautions because this was my first time with a friend irl since March 16th and I wanted to be safe and respectful. Also my partner is a major germaphobe and I didn't want to stress him out were he to look out the window and find us seated four feet apart or whatever. In fact I left the tape measure stretched between the two chairs so he or any passerby could be assured of the proper distance.

Anyway in addition to the delight of Flossy's company, we also enjoyed many neighbors stopping at the end of the driveway to admire our setup and introduce us to their dogs etc. Neighbors I never laid eyes on! Then my next door neighbor from Poland came out for his nightly walk and told us about recent encounters he'd had with my cat Susan in his backyard, and said many admiring things about her, which led us to ask about his pet situation which led to a long story about his last four animals that all died within a year of each other, and how it breaks his heart to even think about getting another pet and watching it die one day. Then he left for his walk. Much later, twilight time, he came out of his house fully masked and gloved, and announced that he'd brought us dessert, in the form of individually wrapped European marzipan treats, and tiny alcohol wipes for wiping down the packages, which he served to us with fully outstretched arms and face turned away. For our safety!

This same nice man, when I encouraged him last summer to try one of the small wild strawberries that had self started in our shared landscaping popped it into his mouth, closed his eyes and said, "tastes like childhood."

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Fri May 08, 2020 1:15 pm

Willow, every word of that tasted like a tiny wild strawberry. Leaving the tape measure out!!! I bet your designer DH appreciated the visual information. Congrats on your IRL fellowship!

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri May 08, 2020 5:15 pm

How romantic

jjstratford · Post by **jjstratford** » Wed May 13, 2020 6:02 pm

Our downstairs neighbors keep bringing us plates of food,
A cake for Mothers Day, cookies another day, the kindest neighbors ever.
They have a teenage daughter who had recently moved out to go to college but had
to come back home when the dorms closed.
She is home and but I have not seen her once in 2 months.
Maybe she's on her phone? Animal Crossing? I want to ask her Dad,
but I also enjoy wondering!

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Thu May 14, 2020 1:37 am

God, being sent home from college must be the deepest drag.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Thu May 14, 2020 4:24 am

I am pen pals with a former student who is now a rising senior at my school. Her dispatches from quarantine just sound awful. She says everyone just sits in their room in their sweatpants chatting (via snapchat or something? I don't know what the kids use for group chats these days) and watching movies together and sending each other memes. It sounds fun but like.....not for weeks and weeks at a time. She says she misses the dining hall so much. She wrote me this psychedelic stream of conscious description of all the stupid things she and her roommates did on campus and how much she misses them. The specific steps of the campus center where they would sit and eat sushi, the specific spots in the library she liked to study, the feeling of just running into your friend outside the crumbling science building and going on an adventure. She says classes on Zoom are incredibly depressing and everyone hates them. She said there was a shirtless guy vaping in one of her classes; everyone has really just given up.

I'm getting annoyed in my world at all the hand-wringing about "the poor seniors who don't get to experience graduation" because it's so blindly #bourgeoisproblems or whatever, I mean on a global scale of How Fucked This Pandemic Is For People I would say that particular sorrow rates pretty low for me, not to mention the much more fucked up situation facing even those self-same seniors (the worst job market in recorded history combined with the most epic student loan debt in history e.g.) and yet, I know they are feeling it and it does suck. I would have had a total breakdown--I can easily remember myself at that exact moment in my life and I would NOT have handled it well. Imagine your burgeoning deeply passionate/dysfunctional college relationship getting abruptly put on hold by this situation, for example. I seriously would have died! My parents would not have been able to manage the emotional explosion.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Thu May 14, 2020 5:18 am

Pretty sure I would have lived in a Trader Joe's dumpster cage before I went "back home."

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Thu May 14, 2020 12:09 pm

Not having a graduation is definitely a minor blip, but I feel really bad for art students who don't get to have a thesis show. Or even finish their thesis work- most people weren't able to complete their projects as planned after school facilities and studios closed. It's this thing that they are working towards for 4 years and spending a whole year thinking about and developing, and then it just deflates and you're left with 1/2 of a project or something poorly finished. The thesis show is a big deal to them, their first big show experience (usually) maybe the first show their family will see, a show that might get written up in the local paper or attract some gallery to do a studio visit. Not to mention grad students! I would have been a full mess if I spent 2 years intensely working on something, to the point of making myself ill, at an astronomical financial cost and life disruption, with the one high moment at the end to celebrate suddenly dropping out. Our thesis show went to NY and that was a big deal. I have a friend in fancy fashion design school in London right now and their senior show is canceled... can you even imagine? She works so hard, lives on such a shoe string, is entering a deeply fucked and weird industry with her own personal vibes and dreams. The senior show is attended by, like, Vogue and shit, and is where you make your debut and attract job offers and financial backing.
I don't know where I'm going with this, but it's been painful to watch people sit in such disappointment. It's like the one guaranteed success or opportunity to get from school, which is so stupidly expensive, before entering a field that is deeply fucked up and precarious, in which you will likely fail. Bad timing for the class of 2020!

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Thu May 14, 2020 12:10 pm

Ideally, it would be great to dismantle this educational model and cost system! And to re-fund the arts and value them! I don't think those things are going to happen anytime soon. But we can dream, I guess, and do the small things like growing carrots and supporting each other and voting etc.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Thu May 14, 2020 12:11 pm

back to topic:
my rich neighbor's kid is home from college, home alone with his gf, and they don't pull their blinds so I know that they are up to sex, bong hits, and walking around in the nude. makes me vv uncomfy.

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Sun May 17, 2020 9:37 am

Sarah, your description of the cancelled thesis show really hit me. I think you are talking about graduate programs, but even for undergraduate, that would have been profoundly disappointing... And I also would not have pushed myself to that higher level of completing something that put me in my true direction.

I don't know what it means for educational institutions, but it seems to me that the value for art students is all but completely lost with remote learning.

And Amber's situation? Sooo deeply awful, those shows are so important and I hope her school can do something to promote/debut their work. Like buy out all the Vogue ad space.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Wed May 20, 2020 11:10 am

It's all very harsh for both bfa and mfa. A lot of people just stopped their project and it's still in stasis, which seems like a horrible feeling.

It's super concerning to look forward to fall and realize how fucked schools will be when students drop out if online classes continue. Not that I blame the students, but small schools are really precarious and it won't be good.

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Thu May 21, 2020 1:42 pm

Our neighbors have a bubble-blowing machine on their deck and they fire it up pretty much every day now (they only used to do it on nice evenings) and as I type this, the bubbles are floating past our front window in the breeze. It's quite nice.

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Thu May 21, 2020 7:05 pm

My excellent neighbors just moved out and now I have no neighbors.

Also, once I typo’d the movie “Neighbors 2” as “Neighbols 2” and I still convert the word to neighbols in my mind every time.

willowowow · Post by **willowowow** » Fri May 22, 2020 1:15 pm

Today I baked a loaf of bread for my crabby old neighbor who cuts her grass with a pair of handheld plant clippers and yells at cars speeding down our street. Every day. But I like grumps so I decided to surprise her with a loaf. I have a feeling she does not like people ringing her doorbell so I left it on her porch railing with a friendly note. 5 minutes later it started POURING, so I anti-climactically ran back over there and repositioned it to a drier spot. At this point I feel the only possible outcome is her dead-eying me later this afternoon and saying matter-fo-factly, "You left me a wet loaf."

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Fri May 22, 2020 1:17 pm

Lol wet loaf!!!!

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Fri May 22, 2020 2:36 pm

Yelling at cars is sick and I love to do it. I fucking hate speeding. Drivers kill 40,000 people a year just in the USA. Fuck em.

richjensen · Post by **richjensen** » Fri May 22, 2020 2:40 pm

Hand clippers: She likes the suffering.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri May 22, 2020 2:59 pm

Our drill sergeant neighbor has all of his sons doing garden chores today. One of them has rollerblading knee pads on and is picking weeds out of the cracks in their driveway asphalt with a screwdriver! Another is weed-whacking the entire backyard! A third is sweeping all the patio spaces! I wish I had many sons to do my bidding!

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Fri May 22, 2020 4:29 pm

Our neighbor just brought us a sack of fancy local beers and a sack of pretzels to “pay us back” for the cherry muffins from earlier!!!!!

matthew · Post by **matthew** » Thu May 28, 2020 9:49 pm

yesterday someone called me bozo, to be fair i got flair

pizza wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2020 10:53 pm None of my neighbors sing top 40 hits —

* last night someone was yellin’ “i don’t fucking care how loud i am” in the hallway around 2am (they were p loud)
* i held the door open for someone the other day and they called me “butthead” and i’ve been agonizing whether it was affectionate? mean? or ???

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Fri May 29, 2020 4:02 am

you are getting roasted by strangers! What's going on? "Bozo" is a really underutilized insult, in my opinion; it's very good

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri May 29, 2020 6:30 am

Is the insult "bozo," someone telling you that you are like a clown? I mean, it comes from Bozo the clown? Fun! But also, what a jerk!

I have not seen the older cowbell man on his roof in ages. I am worried.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Fri May 29, 2020 8:45 am

yeah, like you're a clown. You're a fool. Like BOZO the famous clown from several generations ago. Hahahaha

Post by **joni** » Fri May 29, 2020 10:38 am

: A6292472-A67C-4B36-9E33-FD508FAE6FC4.jpeg (676.14 KiB) Viewed 8132 times

Post by **joni** » Fri May 29, 2020 10:38 am

Big skateboard/surf thing

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Fri May 29, 2020 12:08 pm

"Bozo" is one of the affectionate nicknames I used to get called. I love it.

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 2:53 pm

Another neighbor got a bubble-blowing machine so now there are bubbles blowing all the time. Should we get one too??

freddy · Post by **freddy** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 3:08 pm

alexshred420 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 03, 2020 2:53 pm Another neighbor got a bubble-blowing machine so now there are bubbles blowing all the time. Should we get one too??

I think you should! Bubbles just have a very high joy-to-hassle ratio, you know?

w0lf · Post by **w0lf** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 4:27 pm

One of my neighbors, a middle-aged man, was taking skate lessons from this kids up the street. He's been shredding a lot. I just got a board. Should I join him?

My across the hall neighbor propositioned me for sex in a late night drunken text. He said, "We might have to become best friends. It's getting pretty lonely. Maybe we could make some kind of arrangement? You're the cutest." I briefly considered it but I would rather risk stranger danger.

My living room windows all face the parking lot of another building. My favorite character is this kid named Julian who recently learned to drive. He spends a lot of time washing his gray truck, license plate, Julito. He had a girlfriend but they haven't seen each other since quarantine. He seems sad.

w0lf · Post by **w0lf** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 4:28 pm

For the record, I KNOW how to skate already.