It was ALMOST like breaking glass. Almost.

I was just in my kitchen making iced coffee and singing along, loudly, to some Parachute Musical and it reminded me of this story. I thought about just tweeting it, but shit, I've got some time right now, let's try to stretch this fucker into a post, shall we? Alright, then! Let's do this.

We first got Rock Band about 3 year ago and since then we've played it at least weekly, taking time off for various flus and colds and such.

I sing; I'm not interested in the guitar or the drums or whatever else. I'm a singer. And I'm loud. Like.... really loud. Depending on the song, of course, but tell me, if you were singing this, could you do it quietly? No. That would simply be impossible, wouldn't it?



God, this video is so cheesy. What the hell is with that shoulder shaking thing she keeps doing?

So, anyway, when we first got it, we had been playing pretty much around the clock. One night, it was about 1:00am, and suddenly there's a knock on our door. It's our next door neighbor. In her underwear. She very nicely asked if we had gotten a new karaoke game or something because she's been hearing me doing a lot of singing lately. I had a very nice voice, she said, and I sounded great, and while she really did enjoy Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer, she didn't actually want to be hearing it so loudly at this hour, what with the newborn baby and all that.

OMG. I was mortified. I felt so bad. I certainly know what it's like to need whatever precious time you can steal to sleep, and here I was howling away at all hours of the night and keeping her awake.

Well. I didn't want to have to stop playing Rock Band, of course, so instead.... we padded the window on the side of the room that faces their house (and her bedroom window is right fucking there; about 2 feet away from our windows) with cardboard and newspaper and sheets and blankets... you know, to muffle the sound. And we put a little time restriction on our game playing; no more playing after 9:00, I think, because that's when she went to bed.

It went on like that for some time; I would see her all the time and be kind of afraid to ask if she was getting any sleep, and she never mentioned anything to me. Then, a few months later, we noticed they were getting their bedroom windows replaced. Double, triple, quadruple(?) paned glass windows; to block out sound.

And that's the story of how my incredibly loud singing voice caused my neighbors to have to get their bedroom windows replaced.

Ugh.

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