Exchushe me...

For some reason my family--especially Tyler--still regularly makes fun of me for an impulsive fit I threw about ten years ago in a hotel somewhere in the Midwest during a long family road trip. We had been driving all day, on about day 6 of a week long road trip, so everyone's nerves were shot. After trying about half a dozen hotels, we finally found one with an open room and settled down to sleep, only to find that the walls were paper thin and the people next door were very boisterous--I can't remember whether they were arguing or laughing, but I can remember that they were extremely loud and were keeping us all awake. Twenty minutes in, I jumped out of bed, left the room in my pajamas and retainer without saying a word to anyone, and pounded on the door next to ours. When the shocked occupants answered, I said (with my retainer in) something to the effect of, "Exchushe me, but we can hear every word you're shaying." I returned to our room, where my family had heard everything, and our problem was solved.

This morning I did somewhat of a repeat performance. The people in the flat above ours have been doing some serious remodeling for the past two months or so. They began immediately after the flat across the hall was noisily finished. Every bang of the hammer and saw through wood reverberates to no end through our all-concrete building, and most of the construction work has been done immediately over Jack's bedroom. This noise is in addition to the complete demolition of a building we overlook, which has resulted in intermittent jackhammering from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. most weekdays for the past nine months.

So at about 8 a.m., while all three of us were sleeping soundly, the hammering began. When combined with Jack's lack of sleep, my lack of sleep, and Ben's lack of sleep and excess of work, I was a not happy mommy. The poor Eastern European construction guy who answered the door didn't get a word in at all. I started by saying, "Hi. My 6 month old son is sleeping in the flat directly below you," said something about teething and something about not having slept for more than 4 consecutive hours since February, and finally said, "so do you think you could hold off on the heavy construction noises for another hour or so?" I left. He stopped until 9:30, after all of us were up. Problem solved.

I didn't have a retainer in this time, though.