Also, I'm watching the Big Sports Thing and I still don't know who to root for.

In university had a roommate who did clog dancing.

Right after I moved in the guys living below us, who I happened to know from elsewhere, had a party. I brought my roommates down and the guy was able to pinpoint whose bedroom was whose. Oops.

That said, the one who was the clog dancer actually helped me a lot with these kinds of issues. Before I moved in (so before the others met the guys downstairs), if she knew they were having a party, she made plans to stay elsewhere. And she always had earplugs at the ready. The idea that you could approach noise issues as "I know this will bother me, they're not doing anything out of bounds, so is there something I can do to minimize the impact?" was kind of new. So if my neighbor has the occasional party that makes it hard to sleep, I try to go earplugs and stuff before getting all worked up and irritated.

(When it's reasonable noise, not middle of a weeknight band practice or something.)

We lived next to a(n unofficial) Frat House from the time I was pregnant with Casper until she was nearly 5 and Dillo was 2, so my standards for offensively noisy necessarily became somewhat relaxed.

I was very worried when my house flooded last year because the interior and exterior fans and dehumidifiers (some of these were over 5 feet tall, and there were 56 pieces of machinery in and outside of my house) were extremely noisy and were on 24/7 for exactly a week. But thankfully the neighbors on every side were extremely sympathetic and didn't complain. I went around to 8 neighboring houses when I moved back in, and left a bottle of wine and a "thank you for being so patient with the noise" card on their porches.

I actually LOVE to hear the sounds of children screaming and laughing and otherwise just happy neighborhood noise. Maybe not at 3 if I am trying to sleep, but it's part of being alive.

I had an upstairs neighbor who clogged. I actually had him stand in my apartment while I fake clogged in his. He didn't do it anymore - he was a nice guy and truly didn't realize.

In one of my college apartments, my upstairs neighbor was this wee slip of a girl who WALKED LIKE AN ELEPHANT. I could not figure out how that little mass could make so much noise. And it wasn't the building construction, I could barely hear the other roommates, and one was a giant.

Cashed in some gift cards and now have 3 new skirts for work.

smonster, how funny! Sometimes people are just in their own little oblivious vacuums, aren't they?

Cashed in some gift cards and now have 3 new skirts for work.

Cool! Pics?

One of our across-the-hall neighbors used to wear her clogs and walk up and down the wooden floors.

People Who Wear Clogs: Please take them off at home if you're not walking on carpet.

In one of my college apartments, my upstairs neighbor was this wee slip of a girl who WALKED LIKE AN ELEPHANT. I could not figure out how that little mass could make so much noise. And it wasn't the building construction, I could barely hear the other roommates, and one was a giant.

She must have been a fembot. That's how the Six Million Dollar Man knew that Oscar had been replaced by a fembot--the fembot was much heavier, so the helicopter that fembot!Oscar was in had a hard time taking off.

Oscar Goldman was replaced by a robot. Oscar Goldman's secretary was replaced by a fembot. The Bionic Woman could detect fembots with her bionic ear.