Downward Spiral

Jen Sullivan
5 min readJun 27, 2023
Photo by Won Young Park on Unsplash

To say this past week has been rough is really an understatement. Honestly, it’s been a rough several months.

I posted back in January about our asshole neighbor. After a couple warnings from the landlord, it became a more manageable noise: not every day, and not really noticeable over the bedroom fans at night. On May 13th, that ended when he decided to crank it up again and leave it on most of the day…every damn day and every night.

Some people would maybe think we are being dramatic — it isn’t music, it’s rumblings and vibrations. It’s like listening to an action movie when you’re standing outside the door to the screen in a movie theater. That might seem like it’s not a big deal to most people, but it really adds up.

Imagine that you are listening to that for six to twelve hours a day, every day for two months. Does it still seem reasonable? You get up to go to the bathroom during the night and that’s what you hear. You wake up in the morning and that’s what you hear. You eat dinner, sit at your desk, lay in bed to watch TV, and attempt to finally go to sleep and that is still what you hear. It doesn’t go away — it’s now part of your environment. Your home, which is your safe space, is now infiltrated by constant rumblings, muffled dialogue, random music, and vibrations that travel through your body. This is now your life.

--

--

Jen Sullivan
Jen Sullivan

Written by Jen Sullivan

I am a gamer, a geek, and a gardener, among many things. I enjoy writing as a way to share with others. You'll find no AI content here--I am a real writer.

No responses yet