Sunny Sunday Ruined

This weekend I saw something in Ohio City that made me incredibly frustrated. As most of you already know, Sunday was a lovely day. It was one of those days where you open all the windows to get some of that first fresh spring air into your apartment.

So, after Nate and I wrapped up grocery shopping we went home and did just that. It was a typical Sunday afternoon for us. I ended up laying on the floor in the loft reading while Nate played some video games. Then I started to hear some shouting.

Now, let me be clear, the windows in our apartment are super old. When anyone walks by talking slightly above normal speaking volume we can hear them clear as day in our apartment. So the shouting...it resonated. I tried to ignore it, thinking that it would stop soon.

1 hour later…

Still shouting. I was exasperated and decided to see if I could find out the source of the shouting just in case something was wrong. So I peeked out our front windows and scan the street. Now there’s music. Loud music. And singing. (Horrible singing).

Then I find the source of the noise. Two girls who live above the Phoenix Coffee in the West Side Community House on Bridge were hanging out their apartment windows, drinking, playing music uncomfortably loud, singing, and shouting at each other. This had now been going on for two hours.

I sighed and started to turn away to dry my hair. I told Nate what was going on and then he ended up taking my spot watching. Turns out they were also yelling at people passing on the sidewalk under their apartment. In short, lovely Sunday in Ohio City was ruined for anyone who walked by their apartment.

I walked back to the window and noticed that there were now newspapers scattered all over the sidewalk in front of Phoenix. Then I looked at the girl’s apartment and see them flinging newspapers out the window onto the sidewalk. I watched as they ducked back inside the window and a man walked under their apartment on his way to Phoenix. The girls noticed and threw a newspaper at him….

Yeah.

I was slowly getting more and more pissed off as I watched more newspapers litter the sidewalk. I watched as eight people walked right past the newspapers, looked down at them, paused, and then kept walking.

After this, I decided the only way all those damn newspapers were going to be cleaned up was if I went over and did it myself. So I pulled my freshly washed hair up into a bun, threw on an easy dress, and marched over there and started cleaning up all the newspapers.

It gets better.

Just as I was cleaning up the last newspaper, the two girls and a guy (who I guess had been with the girls in their apartment), walked out of Phoenix with coffees and saw me cleaning up their mess.

Man I wish I had the courage to tell them off in that moment, but I was so pissed off that I knew anything that came out of my mouth was probably going to be full of swear words and mostly unintelligible. It did make me feel pretty good to see how guilty they looked as they tried to pretend it wasn’t them that made the mess, but that wasn’t enough to make me not pissed off.

So why did this make me so mad?

Well first of all, why the hell would you intentionally create a mess in your own community? Like...the Ohio City community works hard to make sure that the entire neighborhood is a nice and welcoming place for all. Throwing newspapers all over the sidewalk in front of a place of business and shouting at people on the street spits in the face of the entire community. It’s childish. It’s stupid. It’s irresponsible.

Second, environmental protection and responsibility is under attack from the government right now. I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would choose to intentionally contribute to littering. Especially when that littering is apparently only for the enjoyment of two seemingly entitled and immature girls.

Finally, where the hell is your conscious?! For you to sit there in your windows yelling at each other and playing music all for the sake of making a scene shows how little you care about the other people in the community. Every neighborhood wants their community members and people visiting the community to feel welcome. Throwing newspapers all over the street and yelling at passersby is both stupid and shameful. It’s disappointing to know that people like you live in Ohio City.

I want you two to know that I reported you to your leasing office. It may seem drastic and harsh, but I can’t standby and let you continue to be such a nuisance in my community. I hope you know that people who saw you in your windows weren’t impressed by your obnoxious little display, they were sad for you. And scared for you. And angry at you.

I hope that seeing me pick up all those damn newspapers made you think twice about pulling a stunt like that again. Because rest assured, if you do it again I’ll keep reporting you and I’ll keep cleaning up after you. No one is allowed to intentionally destroy my community like that and I will never stop until people like you learn their damn lesson.