502

Funny that I wrote yesterday about the noises in my apartment. Today there has been terrible noise from the apartment directly downstairs, #502.

It started this morning at 8:30am. Piano. LOUD piano. It must be electric, because it's not usually that loud. It woke me up. Now, I have a soft spot for kids practicing their instruments since I grew up playing the piano, but come on... This was loud enough to wake me and cause Grace to stir. And since it's electric, there's no excuse!

So I threw on a housecoat, went downstairs and rang the doorbell. No one answered. Then I saw the window start sliding open (there's a window that opens to the hallway), and a little girl peeks out. I can only imagine what she thought upon seeing me, a dishevelled foreign woman standing in the hallway in my pajamas. The piano stopped -- for a half an hour! She's lucky I was so tired and Grace was sleeping so deeply. I chose not to get up again.

1:00 pm. I finally got Grace to go for a nap. It took 20 minutes of effort, so I was very happy when she finally dozed off and I sat down to read The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. Suddenly there is the sound of scuffling, yelling, crying (I mean screaming crying!), slamming of doors, etc. It's 502 again! It sounds like there are a bunch of kids down there rough-housing. This goes on for about 10 minutes.

The only thing that kept me from going downstairs to ring the doorbell again (this time until they answered) was that Grace was still sleeping. Had she woken up, there would have been a scene.

I hope I don't sound like some parent who's all -- I-have-a-baby-so-everyone-should-be-quiet. Far from it. I've endured lots of noise before this with no complaining. And before I had Grace I tried to keep the noise down. I have an electric piano. I don't play it very often, but when I do I keep the volume down or I use headphones. I always keep the volume on the TV at a reasonable level. To me these are just things people should do when living in an apartment building.

Rant over!