I've got nerves, that jingle jangle jingle

[dorinda]

zomg work is eating my face you guys. Our normal summer spike is 1) early, and 2) more like two shoesful of cleats. Plus this Saturday will be my second working Saturday in a row and involve a (happily very rare) 2-hour-each-way commute.

On the one hand, so awesome that lots of people are coming and using the things and producing research and whatnot--that's what we're for. On the other hand (har har), I've started having some trouble with my cubital tunnel--the nerve that goes through the elbow and can have trouble if you have to keep your elbows tightly bent all the time, like say when doing a lot of close work at a film inspection bench. Ouch.

Also, I had heard that someone donated a piano to my co-op and they were going to put it in a 'piano room' somewhere in one of the high rise buildings, for lessons or whatnot. How nice, I thought vaguely, I wonder where the piano room will be.

WELL LAST NIGHT I SURE FOUND OUT.

Turns out the piano room is what used to be a bike room, directly beneath my bedroom, and with no insulation (which is why my floors can be painfully cold to the feet in winter as all the heat sucks out through the floor). So at about 1am my floor and bed were suddenly playing me VERY LOUD AND EXUBERANT PIANO MUSIC.

I staggered down and knocked on the locked door, and it was opened by a young blond man who stank of liquor. We discussed how his "creative moment" (his words) unfortunately had to stop because I really had to sleep. To his credit, even when (presumably) literally stinking drunk, his piano playing was really very good, and also he apologized and stopped and I eventually fell back asleep.

So, you know. Lots going on around here.

To end on a bright and less wtf moment: I got my Night On Fic Mountain story done! I made marycrawford come up with the summary, which I recommend--stuck on a summary? MAKE MARY DO IT. It's tagged and titled and posted! So I am happy.

And I have an idea for another story hot on the griddle, which I would love to start chomping on, as soon as work lets up a little bit on my face and my nerves let up a little bit on my arms. Can one use Siri as a speech-to-text writing tool I wonder?

Comments

[gwyn]

Piano-playing MONSTER. Drunk and/or high people are the worst.

Congrats on the fic, and good luck on the next one! I have the same problem with my elbows, so I am very sympathetic. It really does make writing a fucking difficult hobby.

[dorinda]

I gotta say, though I felt grateful he wasn't belligerent, like that super-drunk at one of my apartments in Madison (I forget if I told you about him back in the day, but man he was so terrible), I still have to say to myself, who on earth would think at 1 am on a weekday, "I KNOW! IT IS TIME FOR ME TO HAVE A ~~~CREATIVE MOMENT~~~".

Hey speaking of fic, I belatedly see that your Cap Reverse Big Bang story is up and rolling! Congratulations!! I hope this bang went better than previous bad bang.

And, sympathies to your arms from mine. I think I don't do mine any good with my phone use, either--I am prone to taking my glasses off, then holding my phone really close to my face to play certain games or whatever, which is quite the elbow-cruncher. Bad Dorinda.

[gwyn]

OH MY GOD I DO EXACTLY THE SAME THING. Not with games, because I'm missing the game gene, but jesus could I just read the damn apps at arm's length? Apparently not, because I always put them up to my face under my glasses. It's pernicious.

This bang is very well run. They've been responsive and handled situations right away that look like they must be difficult (the usual flakiness of people in general). I once again really lucked into an artist who was into the whole thing, didn't disappear on me, or the other things I've seen happen, so in that regard I am two for two. The really sad ironic thing is that the SBB people are doing one again this year, which overlaps a bit with the RBB, and so a lot of people in the Slack community for the RBB are also doing the Stucky one--and I heard they're doing the same thing again, abandoning the claims process for posting dates and just having everyone post by a certain deadline. And do some kind of roundup post on the Stucky library tumblr. I just. I can't.

I feel really bad for a lot of folks, they're pretty distressed. And there weren't enough artists (probably because they were so miserable after last year), so the first round of claims meant a lot of people's summaries didn't get picked for art, and some of them were, you know, expectedly fairly hurt. I'm so glad I swore never again with that one.

[dorinda]

I'm so glad to hear that about the RBB! It's a damn shame that the SBB people don't seem to have learned anything from their mistakes, though, ugh. It all ends up falling on the heads of the poor people trying their best to participate despite it all. You're so much better off out of it--who needs the agita?

[msmoat]

Gah! My biggest fear with apartment/condo living is not being able to sleep because of noise. Or just being annoyed with noise, to be honest. I mean, there's a reason I'm now on the top floor of my apartment building. *g* But sleep, especially! I went down a couple of years ago when two men were in the courtyard, hanging out on nice chairs in the late evening in summer...and had a radio blasting. Gah! Fortunately, they were not drunk, and were nice enough about it. But it shouldn't be necessary!

I love the idea of a piano being around for people to play. At a reasonable time!

Congratulations on the story!! \o/ And for the future story idea. Go, you!

[dorinda]

Yeah, I am always concerned about noise for sure. There's a jazz band that rehearses or performs every Tuesday in the multipurpose room that's almost under my apt. (a couple rooms down from the piano room)--but it doesn't bother me, and I eventually figured out why. It's not because I'm a huge jazz fan or anything, although they sound pleasant and talented and whatever. It's because the hours for the playing are firmly set and publicized--regular Tuesday rehearsals end at 8:30pm, occasional lobby performances end at 9pm.

Once I know that, and I have experience with them respecting the ending time, then I can relax. I don't have to sit there all clenched up worrying about the source of the noise and whether/when it's going to stop, or wonder if I'm going to have to go ask people to tone it down. And then it's perfectly tolerable.

And next time my brother's in the states, I'm sure he'd enjoy using the piano. As you say, at a reasonable time--no one needs a 1am concerto.

However, having said all that, I will admit I have a fantasy--an apartment building specifically (and strictly) run as a quiet building. No way to perfectly measure or enforce these things in real life, but in my head, it just feels so nice... can you imagine, no thumping bass, no loud parties, no stomping overhead? Being able to sleep in restful silence with the windows open when the weather suits? Ahhhhhh.

Thanks for the congrats! I'm dying to lay a rough draft of this new story down on the (electronic) page. Once this latest work spike eases off a little, and ditto arms, then I totally will.

[klia]

Just... GAAAAAHHHHH. Remember when summer used to be fun? ;__;

Neighbor noise sucks really, really hard. At least drunk dude stopped and wasn't an asshole about it, but still. WHO DOES THAT AT 1AM?

Of course, I have the upstairs neighbor who thought it was cool to play bouncy-ball with her dog on a wood floor (she ripped out the landlord's carpet, which muffled previous neighbor's dog) as early as, oh, 5am. It's gotten better, but this week, someone (a visitor, I think) started up at 6:30, and after it went on for 10 minutes, I banged on my ceiling until they stopped. I mean, come the fuck ON. I'd finally fallen asleep around 2:30, so it was especially lovely being woken up at that hour.

(*whispers* FAN. RANCH. *prays fervently*)

So sorry about your elbow! Please be very, very careful, because you REALLY don't want to end up sharing my boat.

[dorinda]

That's such a funny thing about this job. Lots of people refer to the summer as a time when things slow down, because of how that happens in so many other areas of life, especially school. But this job is just about the reverse of that, and summertime kind of asplodes. So it's harder for me to get away in the summers, like taking vacations or taking time off to see visiting friends.

I am definitely working hard on arm abatement! I take nerves very very seriously, especially after seeing all the utter crap you've had to go through. *hugs*

[marycrawford]

WTF whyyy did they put the piano there, and why did that guy play it PAST MIDNIGHT, wtf, I rage on your behalf. Hope there is a solution there that isn't, you know, sneaking down and cutting all the piano strings with a bolt cutter. Not that anyone would do that.

Please be v careful of your elbow - as much as I am sooooo looking forward to the next story, I would prefer for you to not get carpal/cubital tunnel, pls.
(And yoouuu came up with the summary, end of. Those who wash the windows do not get credit for building the house! <3)