Our First Day in Denver

To all our fans:

Since we are so beloved we thought we might share some of the more interesting or perhaps entertaining moments of our adventures in the wild, wild west. Fortunately bizarre trouble seems to follow us so there is ample grist for our journal 'Our Travels - Believe it or Not'. For example:

Yesterday was our first official day in the apartment while our movers were delivering our belongings from New York (after a blizzard overnight left 8 inches of snow in Downtown Denver). We had 4 movers bringing in a box every 30 seconds or so and yelling out the number for Rachel to check off the list while I directed them to the appropriate room. During this organized chaos a woman walked in the front door (which was open) and walked past me announcing that she was coming to check our bathrooms. I presumed she was an employee of the building and attempted to introduce myself but she ignored me and walked into the guest bathroom. She then exited and started walking towards the bedroom down the hall as I walked behind, again trying to introduce myself and find out what was going on. She then, seeming to talk to herself rather than me, said, "The drain is on the end of the bathtub. Mine is in the middle".

Thus I presumed she was another tenant of the building but she still did not identify herself. Rachel then entered the room and was more "direct" (after all she is the native New Yorker and always introduces me to new people as the 'nice one') but was polite and said, "Hi. I am Rachel Adler but we are very busy managing the move. Could we talk to you in a couple hours when we are done?" This woman then said, "That's not necessary. I already got what I wanted" and she started walking out of the bedroom and towards the front door. She then stopped and turned and said, "I can hear you walking on these floors You better have rugs down.". I tried to reassure her that we would (see - I am too nice) but she did not respond and walked out the door. As she opened her front door, just next door to us, she sort of introduced herself stating her first name (which I did not quite get) and she wished us good luck with the move. I was a little stunned, the movers were generally entertained, and Rachel was ready to knock down her door and mug her.

We related this story to our real estate agent (who happens to live down the hall from us) shortly after by which time Rachel was already laughing about the whole thing. However, an hour or two later, after the movers left, we heard our strange neighbor outside our front door (now closed) talking to someone and she started ringing our doorbell and then knocking on our door. Without any qualms we opted to not answer the door.

While unfamiliar with normal Colorado apartment protocol, our experience as residents on both coasts is that guests call from the lobby or call ahead before arriving at the front door. We might have been cleaning the oven or doing nude yoga exercises.

She continued to ring the doorbell and pounded on the door for several minutes until we heard her return to her apartment. Unfortunately, the story doesn't end, as a few minutes later the door bell rang again and there was another loud knock. We definitely were not going to answer this time. Then we heard the locked front door being opened (thinking - how did she get a copy of our keys?) and then heard the doorman asking if anyone was home. We quickly responded from our bedroom "Yes. What is the matter?". He explained that another tenant, below us, complained that there was water pouring down from our balcony and thought we had left water running (the balcony is not anywhere near a water tap of any kind). I told him that because of the blizzard the night before that the snow on our balcony was melting, probably like every tenant in the building, and draining off the side. He agreed that this was not an unusual situation and apologized for the intrusion. We later explained to him, when leaving by the front desk, the context of the situation and he agreed that the entire event was bizarre.

We then related the entire story to the real estate agent and the owner of the apartment. They both agreed it was even strange behavior for this women who had a reputation in the building for odd behavior. The good news is that we can now march up and down the apartment with ski boots and not worry about complaints. It turns out this woman not only owns the apartment adjacent to ours but also the one below us. I am shopping for a pogo stick and tap shoes for the cats later today.

Ciao from another universe.

Jon and Rachel