Our upstairs neighbor came downstairs today.

She was extremely apologetic. She had just gotten back from the
airport, had been out of town all week. (So we didn’t hear her upstairs
after all. Berck thinks I’m hearing things. I think her boyfriend came
every evening to feed the cat.)

So when Berck woke me up on Monday morning, wondering if our neighbor
was dead, my sleepy answer was apparently accurate. “No, she had to get
up early on Sunday to catch a plane. She’ll be gone all week, and the
alarm will wake us up each morning.” Then I drifted back to sleep,
dreaming about how our neighbor wasn’t dead…she was just foster
parenting the klepto-pepper kid because his real parents had disappeared.

Hopefully, this morning will be the last wake-up call. Berck didn’t
wake up at all this morning. I did after half an hour of the insistent
buzzing. It just drives your brain crazy.