The woman upstairs is very loud. We’ve asked politely and complained two or three times before to no avail. She doesn’t listen and doesn’t seem to care. So this time I added a little bite.
For the last two mornings she’s begun with loud phone calls a little after 6 am and then she clomp-clomp-clomps around her apartment with street shoes. Her steps sound like some steed clopping on a London pavement, which is partly why we call her “Horse Woman.”
Tatiana, a very light sleeper who needs a good eight or nine each night, has been awoken by Ms. Filly twice over the last 48 hours. Plus when Horse Woman has sex with her younger boyfriend she goes “eeek! eeek! eek!” like a squeaky mouse, and we have to deal with that also.
Note delivered this morning to Horse Woman’s apartment at 7 am:
“In an apartment complex with thin walls, it is not only unneighborly but uncivilized to speak loudly in a phone conversation as you tromp around your apartment in noisy shoes at 6:05 am. You are waking my wife, who is trying to sleep. And this is the second morning in a row that you’ve done this.
“Are you capable of showing just a little bit of courtesy? Is there some kind of basic blockage you’re trying to cope with?
“Before 9 am, please use headphones for phone calls and keep your voice down. Try to speak in a conversational tone, and don’t bellow like you’re speaking to hundreds in a bullfight arena without a microphone. And please don’t walk around your apartment in clompy shoes — try barefoot or socks or sandals.
“I feel as if I’m speaking to someone at a dinner table who (a) was never told to eat her food with modest-sized bites, (b) was never told to not speak with her mouth full and (c) was never told to put a napkin on her lap.
“You know…civilized behavior? Manners? You’ve heard of this stuff, right?