WHO KNEW?
I am an Asian Mafia of one. Who knew? The other night, a weeknight, there were four boys, 15-ish yrs old, out in the courtyard making the ruckus of the century by whooping, literally, saying "Whooooop! Whooooop! Whooooop!" at the top of their lungs to badly projected music playing at top volume from the family mini-van, of all things. Over and over and over and ooooover again. Started at 10:30pm-ish. Grr. This particular night was just another one in a series of nights, all equally loud. After about an hour, the woman across the hall opened her window and bellowed down, "Shut up, already! Some people gotta get up in the morning." Ironic, because she leans over the stair railings and screams like a banshee for her kids multiple times, day and night. Karma, anyone? Needless to say, the "whoooooping" ceased. Only to be replaced by Krump dancing. Badly, I might add. And still a ruckus. I'm often up into the wee hours of the morning, as it is, so the noise wasn't keeping me up per say, but the total disregard for the existence of other human beings sure was. Shoulda got dressed and traipsed down the three flights of stairs to where they were and A) asked if I could join them. They teach me to Krump. I teach them to Charleston. OR B) played the ditsy-impressed-female role of "Golly gee, boys. Y'all do that so well. Love to see you perform in the daylight sometime, but ya think ya could maybe let a girl get some rest tonight and wrap it up-blah-dee-blah-blah-blah"... yeah, not happening. OR C) enlightened them by demanding actual responses as to what made them so very special as to be the uninvited vocals disturbing other folks drifting off to dreamland. Would have left me to feel like an overly stern wretch of a woman. Ms. Butt-Inksie, I am not. All the while, there was a family of five unloading a large U-Haul truck into their newly rented apartment from the courtyard. One of them approached the boys asking if they could keep it down, casually pointing out that it was disrespectful. So, save dancing with them, I saw my two options more or less, tried and tested. And failed. Sometime after 2am, hours later, I was sitting in the Spare Oom at the computer in the dark. The light of the monitor had gone out as the computer slipped into sleep mode upon finishing up some work. In the dark, I reached for my nearby camera and snapped a shot out the window in their direction. Ha! Such wonderful dorky fun. One of the boys says, "Whoa! What was that? You guys see that?" His three friends went on totally ignoring his observation. I giggled to myself. Snap! Took another shot. The same kid says, "See?! Oh my God, what was that? You see that red light? And a flash?!" to which his friends said, ".....yeah...yeah! What WAS that?" Now all four boys are standing side by side staring up at my window, and I grew quiet thinking surely, their gonna come upstairs and check it out. I'm thinking I'm not quite sure what the heck I'm gonna do. Ignore them, answer the door, etc. My short-lived dorky fun is at its end. Snap! Took another photo! The first guy, the observant one, shouts out, "Asian Mafia!" leaps up into the air, his body splayed out in an "X" formation as though he's in a suspended jumping jack. He lands well behind the parked U-Haul truck hidden from sight. His friends all ran in the opposite direction scrambling up the short hill to the cover of the roadside trees. And I thought my fun was over. Too funny! Over the next minute or two, all four crept back into the courtyard area and proceeded to loudly say things such as, "Man, crazy how some people gotta take all the fun outta a guy trying to be positive, do the right thing, and have some innocent fun. We ain't doin' nothin' wrong." After their statements of angelic purity, they sat themselves down on the stoop near their own apartment and QUIETLY talked on. The family of five gathered around the back of their open U-Haul where one proceeded to tell the others, "Those kids leaping all over the place out here just a minute ago all scared themselves silly thinking the Asian Mafia is out to get 'em. Dumb-asses." I think I like the new tenants! And the boys? They haven't been out at night since. Too bad, I really wanted to teach them the Charleston.