The Noisy Neighbor Series

I have a noisy neighbor. Every morning as early as 7:00 a.m., and as late as 9:30 a.m., they blast something from the current top 40. They blast it with such confidence directly into my bedroom, my sleeping sacred space. The base. The base is so present, almost more so than the music. What’s most unfortunate, is that they don’t play songs I’ve never heard, or ones from a more alternative genre that can really go either way depending on if there’s a car passing or a fountain running —No, they don’t play those. They are my personal hit radio station currently playing, for the second time (not unlike most radio stations) Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud. See the reason top 40 is such a con, is because it sticks. I know the words and can recognize the melody from just a few seconds of play time thanks to stations like 102.7 and 97.1. So not only am I woken up by this music every morning, always before my alarm blows, the songs play in my head for the remainder of the day, and sometimes even hassle me when I try to finally fall asleep at night, only to be woken up again by my noisy neighbor.

You might be thinking “noise complaint,” “police,” “building manager.” Well, like you, I too have had all these thoughts and been impressed with my level of proactivity in leaving large bold lettered notes in a variety of loud colors, dialing the manager at hours before the sun really wakes up, calling the police, leaving more notes, getting a policeman’s number with a direct phone line and a promise for salvation, only to call that number and be redirected to the main “non-emergency” phone line. Which, by the way, is always very busy and plays the same recording in English, Spanish, and an extremely scratchy high pitched noise for the hearing impaired — you can imagine the discomfort it causes for us who can actually hear it and are not impaired.

To be continued…But hopefully not for long.