Pen-Elayne on the Web

When the going gets tough, the not-so-tough among us make lists.

This is, unbelievably, my first entry made whilst the upstairs neighbors are at it. It's not so bad this morning, it sounds like she's cleaning in their bedroom (which is right above ours), not much more than some intermittent banging at 9 AM on a Sunday. It's been worse; every weekday morning they get up about 6:30, he showers, she sees to the baby, sometimes she stomps her feet into her boots, they both stomp back and forth repeatedly in the bedroom for the next hour or two (I'm gone by 7:30 but I'm told it goes on much longer) until they're out the door. They don't, it seems, know how to walk properly, or tiptoe, or do anything that would lessen the noise. Our last upstairs neighbors, a woman and her two teenaged sons, were a blessing. The workmen who renovated between tenants betrayed their presence only with construction sounds, not footsteps. Even the super is silent when he does work in the apartment. So it's not just the lack of carpeting at work here, it's the lack of consideration.

When we found this place we were given specific house rules which we've followed since (in fact, the rules were a major reason we decided to move here, as the situation with the new owner of the 2-family in which we'd previously resided had gotten more dangerously unlivable by the month due to the noise he and his belligerent family made), one of which stated very clearly that moving must be done during weekdays, 9-5. These folks moved in on weekends and evenings, sometimes as late as 3 in the morning; We've tried repeatedly with the co-op board and the landlord to have them at least get carpeting, hence the lists I mentioned above - to no avail. The rules are either unenforced or unenforceable. The stomping continues. We've tried to talk to them, and their response was immediately defensive, claiming "We're not malicious people!"

And they're not. What they are is completely uncaring about anyone else outside their cocoon of cacaphony. It's worse when their young niece visits from two doors over. Interestingly, our neighbors underneath that apartment don't seem to have nearly the problem we do; her father must forbid her from running in her own home, thus leading her to run around in her aunt and uncle's place, because after all they permit such noise. It doesn't matter to them who else is disturbed, who else is forced by virtue of having normally operating eardrums to know the details of their lives.

We are powerless, and I hate being powerless in situations where I have the ability to do something about it. I can't change my work situation; you know going into a secretarial job that you're in a position of servitude, and it would probably be no different elsewhere even were anyone to respond to my repeated resume sendings. I can't do anything about a commute on a subway line that squishes people into seats built too small for them. But I can change my comfort level the one place where it really matters to me. We start looking at houses next week.

Meantime, I've just broken in a new set of earplugs.