My neighbors.

The building we live in is huge. There are approximately 150 apartments. There are 9 staircases (assuming I didn't lose count), 3 elevators, 2 courtyards, and 1 pool. The building itself takes up an entire block (not a square block, just one side of a block), and inside the hallways are seemingly infinite stretches of white walls and purple carpets, disturbed only by grey firedoors ever 30 feet or so. I have gotten lost more than once, and have to go through 6 firedoors to reach the front of the building. The roof is an impressive maze of heating/AC vents, surrounded by peaked bits of roof around the perimeter. The exterior apartments on the 3rd floor all have porches overlooking the roof, and from our side of the building the Hollywood sign is visible between two of the peaks. There are two trash chutes. The ground floor has assigned parking and a laundry room with 12 machines.

These last 2 amenities cause more problems than I would have expected.

Trash. Trash strikes me as something that, while not necessarily pleasant to take care of daily, is not difficult. You take the bag out of the bin, tie it off, and stuff it down the trash chute. I lived in the country for years, and trust me - weekly trips to the dump are a lot less fun. So why is it that my neighbors cannot seem to keep the trash off the floor surrounding the chutes? I'm not just talking dirty kleenex here, either - I'm talking chicken bones, lemon rinds, gum...It's fucking disgusting. I have, on more than one occasion, seen trash bags sitting in front of my neighbors' doors, not even tied off. Today, the door in question was about 10 feet from the trash chute. No wonder we occasionally have roaches.

Laundry. There are, as I mentioned, 12 washers and 12 dryers. Unlike our old building (which had 4 of each, none of which worked very well), it seems that most of the people washing their clothing are housewives, like me, as opposed to the single men and once-a-week housekeepers I usually saw in the West Hollywood building. They are, however, unlike me, terrible housewives. Now, granted, I never dust and rarely clean the toilet, but I know how to do laundry, and I have respect for the fact that other people use the laundry facilities. These bitches ALL use powdered laundry soap, and never bother to contain it within the washing machines. They never clean the lint screens. Today I found a lint screen sitting in a dryer, loose, spreading linty bits all over the otherwise clean dryer. No one ever seems to actually check the machines for missed items. I can't tell you how many loose socks and undies I've found abandoned.

ARGH! I'd go on, but I think I've reached my Annoyance Capacity.