Welcome Back, Clompie

Originally posted June 16/2007 on "Allison Wonderland"


After two weeks of blessed silence, Clompie Stomperson has returned. Clompie is the woman upstairs, who also happens to own the house. She's really nice, if a little forgetful; the only problem is that she may be the loudest little person on the planet. It's amazing how such a petite person can make her presence know from one end of the house to the other, top to bottom, and not even realize it.

I know I've mentioned the shoes before. She wears them (high heels, not sneakers) in the house, which wouldn't be a problem if her office wasn't right on top of Simon's room, it wasn't floored in hardwood, or if she'd take the bloody heels off after 9 at night. Last night she was still clomping around at 1:30 in the morning.

And talking on the phone. Loudly. You know how there are close talkers? Well she's a loud talker; she doesn't even know she's doing it. Again, not a problem if not for the "into the wee hours of the morning" thing. And not to be repetitive, but she really is very nice...

My dad asked me last night, after I informed him of Clompie's return, when we're going to move. Ummmm.... good question. If it were just the noise (and/or the heat issues), it would be easy to leave, but there are other things. Thinks like this amazing, huge, wild back yard we've got. We don't use it much in the winter, but at this time of year it's so beautiful. And then there's the kitchen. In a perfect world we'd at least be able to get a three-bedroom place so I could have an office, but that's not gonna happen. Right now we have this huge kitchen that has room for me to spread out all my card-making stuff, while still having room for Simon's toys and enough counter space for the dishes I probably should have done yesterday. The living room and bedrooms aren't huge, but they're bigger than in a lot of basement apartments around here. And we have access to a washer and dryer. See the dilemma? I'd love to spend the winter at Andre's aunt and uncle's house again while they're in Florida, but then we wouldn't be able to be here next spring- and who knows what we'd find to replace it?

As for asking Ms. Stomperson to keep it down after hours, that's not easy, either. As I mentioned earlier, she's rather forgetful, and while she might take her shoes off if we ask, she forgets the next time she comes into the house. Every time. AJ's scared that if we keep asking, she'll kick us out. Ditto for bitching about the electricity bills in the winter (specifically about the high level of suckitude in the house's insulation).

At least Simon's a good sleeper. He woke up a few times last night, but he got himself back to sleep in spite of the racket- pretty amazing after having a few weeks to get used to peace and quiet.

At least if AJ and i ever own a house that has a basement apartment, we'll have learned a few things from the 3 apartments we've lived in. Things like:

- don't have the kids practice piano at 8:00 on Saturday mornings when people are sleeping under your living room.

- ditto for the kids doing jumping jacks, playing leapfrog, etc. over said bedroom.

- the sex? If you can't keep it down (and good for you, honey!) maybe put on some music... or improve soundproofing. A lot.

- wear slippers in the house. It's better for your floors, anyway.

- just remember that there are people living under you. Yeah, it's your house, and you can do what you want... but it's probably a good idea to keep good tenants happy if you can.

But then again, I'm hoping we can just skip the "2 apartment" stage altogether.