It's a Friday afternoon, and I'm sitting out on my balcony. It's probably around 80 degrees and breezy, and I came out here with a vision of writing and listening to Bon Jovi and having myself a lovely day.
But then my upstairs neighbor decided to come out on his balcony and practice his guitar.
See, several days ago my roommate came home and told me she ran into said upstairs neighbor, who told her that he'd just gotten an electric guitar and apologized if we heard him practicing all the time. And, yes, I heard him playing that electric guitar ALL DAY yesterday and was going a little bit out of my mind. I like to think I'm a pretty patient, tolerant person, but sheesh, take a break, man!
I hadn't realized an acoustic guitar was also in the mix until, after about a half an hour of silence today, I decided to get iTunes going. After less than a song had gone by, "Thank You For Loving Me" was suddenly being overlapped by some random strumming from above my head. With a sigh, I hit pause.
Several minutes later, the strumming stopped. After several more minutes of silence, I figured he'd given up his practicing, so I happily went back to iTunes. But seconds -- literally, seconds -- after I hit play, he was back at it. It was like a bad sitcom.
So I paused again, and decided to just let his guitar be the soundtrack to my writing instead of Bon Jovi. And y'know? He's not really all that bad. I was pretty content with my decision. But now he's talking on the phone (on speakerphone) really freaking loudly about girls and getting high, and I know I should be annoyed but I'm actually really amused.
What's the point of this story, you ask? Hell, I don't really know.
Completely unrelated dog selfies for the win!
But it's nice to not be annoyed. Being annoyed sucks. And maybe it's just because the weather's nice and I'm still feeling inexplicably positive about my life despite all the uncertainty, but I'm kind of realizing that annoyance is a choice. I could choose to be angry that I can't listen to Bon Jovi right now, or I could choose to laugh silently to myself about this dude talking to his friend about various tips he's read about how to pick up girls. (Did you know girls all fall into certain "tribes" and only look for guys that fit into the same "tribe"? I know, my mind is BLOWN. Obviously we can all be pigeonholed like that! I'm learning so much about my gender, guys!!!11!!1!)
And I think the same sort of attitude can be applied to life. Right now, the Bon Jovi playlist of my life is on pause, and I'm currently stuck listening to my neighbor of questionable intelligence talking going to bars and getting high and such. But if past is prologue, eventually he'll shut up (metaphorically speaking, of course) and I can get back to rocking and rolling. (How's THAT for some introspection for ya?)
Oh, bless, he's off the phone!
...Nope, wait, the guitar is back. So close.
No comments :
Post a Comment