Sunday, August 07, 2005

Too Much Information

On Friday, my next door neighbor invited me to a party for him and his girlfriend. During the evening, my neighbor tells me "You know, people in the building have been talking about you." I had no what idea he was talking about. I asked "Who?" "The doormen", he replied. "Well, actually just Kenny." "Yeah," my next door neighbor goes on, "Kenny asked me about you."

Well, apparently, Kenny asked whether I "belonged" to the building since I am only a lowly subletter inside a co-op. I'm a pretty quiet resident in the building and keep to myself. The doormen all like me and the ladies who run the dry cleaners think I'm cute (well, the new ones do, the old ones didn't like me, but more about that in another post). But one night I locked myself out of my apartment like I do once a month. I spent the night at a friend's place and came back the next morning and called a locksmith. The locksmith got my door open, but made a ton of drilling noise in the meantime. My door was open all right, and the lock looked like it had a bomb detonated on it.

Since I made such a scene in the building, some people complained. Some people also complained because I used to have a very bad habit of leaving my alarm on. One time I came home after a 2 week trip to find notes and voicemails from a furious neighbor.

All of these were accidents and none were my fault and I had forgotten about them. So when my next door neighbor informs me of the fact that Kenny is asking about me, I immediately panic. Why in the world do some people feel compelled to divulge information like this just to get someone worked up? Now I'm freaking out. Rationally, I know I won't get evicted because if my co-op board wanted to evict me, they would have done so long ago. Furthermore, "Kenny" has since retired. But I have no clue why my neighbor felt the need to share this with me.

Argh. I hope I'll eventually forget about this.

2 comments:

Robin said...

I doubt there was any malice behind this revelation (unless you really sensed something). When you don't know someone that well, you tend to grasp onto the one thing you have in common, no matter how uninteresting or insignificant: "Bob once played the viola with your cousin in the third grade." "What? Violas are fascinating!"

And yes, Christian Bale is a hottie. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night for fondue!

Unknown said...

Very interesting article. Few days ago I also have been in the same situation. I locked myself out of my apartment. I think a locksmith (or any type of technician job that requires home visits) would be an excellent study in human behavior, sociology, psychology, and the like. You get to see how people live and how they react to adversity. It is important to find an honest and reliable locksmith. Some companies run a criminal background check on all employees to help ensure their people are trustworthy. If you are nervous about hiring a locksmith, ask about the background check policy when you call a company for help.