lou reed at 3 am is not cool when you're trying to sleep

I like Lou Reed. Truly. He's one of the coolest musicians working today--the sunglasses, the music, the black jeans, Lauri Anderson--the king of cool, along with David Bowie and Paul Anka (have you heard his new album? omigosh, it is great! "Eye of the Tiger" never sounded so good.), to name a few. However, when one is asleep and is suddenly awakened by loud, low reverberating sounds coming from the upstairs neighbor, and it is 3 in the morning, and she has to be up at 5:30 am to check her e-mail for the incoming 48 hour film festival script thingy, and she went to bed after midnight, and even though it's Lou Reed (and the fact that she knows it is lou reed is some kind of proof that it's too loud), it is NOT cool!!!!

I've talked to my neighbor once before about his volume control--or lack thereof, I should say. This was a few weeks ago, and I'd been asleep. Then suddenly not asleep. T.V. loud. Too loud. Woke me up and I tried to just take it. Put the pillow over my head, begged silently for him to, on his own, realize that he should turn it down. I even turned on my own television and raised the volume to really rude levels in a brief moment of delirium. Nothin'. I don't like confrontation, and I'd never met this upstairs guy. My stomach was all tied in knots, and what wasn't intestinally tense was fluttery. But I walked upstairs and silently prayed to whom/whatever that this person that I was about to ask to "keep it down" would be kind. He was. We shook hands. I smiled. He apologized. It wasn't nearly has awful as it could have been. AND THEN THIS MORNING. Perhaps this just exemplifies my old lady in a 30-something body persona, but after 10 pm, I feel that in an apartment building situation, the volume ought be turned down to a respectful level.

I didn't go up there, this time. I was about to. Had my keys in my hand, standing in the middle of my apartment and glaring at my ceiling. I don't know this for sure, because I can't actually see myself when I do this, but I have this very sure sense of being able to make an amazingly scary mean face. Every fiber of my being was engaged in the necessary energy required to make that face and send it's vibes up through the ceiling and into the soul of this guy. I guess it sort of worked, because Lou Reed's loud mellow tone turned into a low mumble. Good enough for me. He was nice once, and he'd probably be nice again. Still..I definitely fall into the trap of being a little too concerned with how others are going to perceive me. I don't want to be the crabby downstairs neighbor, that "uncool" girl who lives below. Totally silly and not very self-respecting. (insert audible big sigh here.)