World Outside My Window

I went to bed early last night, victim of one of those annoying headaches that comes after a cocktail or two, not enough to actually get buzzed, just enough to throw your whole evening out of whack. I'd wanted to get a lot more work done on this great idea I had for a non-fiction book proposal, but aside from fixing a few typos I'd found in what I'd already written, I didn't get much done. So, to bed.

Now, I love my little NYC apartment, but it has a few quirks. No window screens, crazy small closets in each bedroom but nothing that would pass as a coat or linen closet, kitchen cabinets that try to knock out tall folks who walk in, a bathroom door that opens out into the narrow entrance hallway, etc. etc. But one of my favorite quirks, really, is the piano bar directly downstairs from us. In the summer, I barely hear anything from it, with the noise from our air conditioner or a fan drowning out the music. And in the deepest winter, the tunes are muffled by the floor. But it's those beautiful balmy fall and spring nights, when I sleep with my window wide open to catch a breeze, that I get to hear not only constant refrains by Billy Joel or Elton John, Broadway tunes belted out, or the once-a-night jingle for the bar itself, but exciting conversations from bar patrons who take their cigarettes (and their arguments) outside.

Last night, I woke from a deep sleep at I-don't-know-what time, to hear some guy yell, "This place has LOST its charm!" He then proceeded, as far as I could surmise, to try to force his girlfriend to take his Amex card, yelling, "Take it! Take it! Take it!" At some point, one of his friends from inside the bar came out to try to calm him down, but just added to the noise, calling his name loudly even as the uncharmed fellow must have walked off.

As I laid there in bed, hearing the whole thing, slightly groggy from sleep, I felt like I could picture the whole thing, and was more than half tempted to just poke my head out my window and add my two cents, "Oh, just take it already and shut him up!" I never do though. Too much trouble to get out of bed. As the sounds drifted back to the usual noises of the street, cars and fire engines driving by, I fell back to sleep, disturbed once again by a garbage truck picking up trash at some point in the night/early morning, but otherwise, slept straight through to my alarm in the morning.

Just a bit of color from my New York life.