Deja Vu!

When John and I first moved to Portland, we had a particularly memorable family that lived in one of the units next to our building. This family had a little son who was the loudest child on Earth! I had a hard time ever opening the windows because doing so resulted in having to listen to his little guy shouting and screaming as he played in the area below the buildings. His mom would often sit on her patio talking on the phone and allowed him to play below (which I thought was not so good) and he just proceeded to make all kinds of racket. He pretty much drove us nuts! We were really happy when we moved to our second apartment and no longer had to bear with his shenanigans.

Today, I had complete deja vu when I was attempting to enjoy a leisurly afternoon of reading out on our patio. At first all was good, but then I began to hear shouting. Initially all was good and I was happy as a clam, but then it turned ugly. Out came loud boy and his clan of shouting sidekicks. I honestly could not hear clearly enough at first to even know what language this lovely boy was shouting in, but he came closer and closer until bam!...he has two of his friends were right in front of our building playing with a remote control car. Now, surely playing with a remote control car on a beautifully sunny day in Germany is a perfectly acceptable activity.  The problem for me is that, I do not think playing with a remote control on a nice sunny day entails SHOUTING EVERY WORD YOU UTTER at the TOP of you LUNGS. Parents here are very chill and often let their kids play outside without supervision. Even moms of really young kids let them much farther out of their sights than I would ever be comfortable with. This translates to....nobody is there to tell this kid to shut it! The mamas of those three boys are enjoying some peace and quiet in the respite from NOISE inside their homes and they are thrilled to have those three clowns out of their hair.

Really kids? Thanks for ruining my chill time.

Now, here in Germany, people think it is there business to tell you not to do things if they don't like it. I have heard that BBQ-ing is not allowed because people don't like the smell. Well what if we DO like the smell and we want to BBQ? The neighbors serious would tell us not to!? So technically, I could take it upon myself to give this little dynamic trio a little wave and hallooo...and proceed into my best teacher SHHHHHHHH! But, no. Let them enjoy their fun and I will stay inside, pale and hidden from the sun in a vampiresque fashion.

After retiring back inside, I realized I also needed to close to window because his voice was continuing to pierce through the silence of my indoor sanctuary. I know that there exists a distinction between the "indoor voice" which differs in elevation from the "outdoor voice," yet even the outdoor voice does not require so much volume!

I guess it's Karma for inadvertently locking John out on the patio while I spent over an hour at the gym last night leaving him stranded in the dark. I am such a good wife.