And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof ...

After living in a top-floor walk-up apartment in a lovely brownstone for almost 4 years, I have moved to a studio apartment in a different borough and a very different building. This building has an elevator, so of course I live on the first floor, and have neighbors above me for the first time in ...let me count... about 10 years. Noise overhead meant - in the brownstone - Verizon repairmen, wrestling with the antiquated phone lines on the Upper West Side who might, in their zeal to make repairs, accidentally cut my phone line. Up in the country, it meant that the roof of my little house was desperate to continue its romance with the ground, and was falling apart. Both categories of sound were cause for alarm.

Now, though, the thuds and thunders are from my new upstairs neighbors, who moved into the building  about a month after I did. This is a problem. My sleep schedule has begun to be dictated by theirs, and they are much younger. Loud-party age. Last Saturday's party (not the first), which included thumping music and intermittent shouting, broke up at 4 AM. Every time I had fallen asleep, I was awakened by shrieks or banging;every time, I decided against getting up, getting dressed, and gettingmyself upstairs to beg for quiet, which I have done on several otheroccasions to little lasting effect. It happens that I had to get up at 6 that morning. Thank heaven I was not singing a church gig that day. On 2 hours of sleep, there was no voice to sing with.  I don't know what to do about this. The building manager has not been helpful. The kids are nice kids, she says, talk to them. I have talked to them. She is right. They are nice. But nice is a surface trait, and they are, underneath, perhaps not so kind. Talking to them has not made a difference. Even on non-party nights, there is often booming music or TV right above my head and bed.

Several friends have suggested I call the police when the late nights happen. Local noise ordinances specify 10 PM as cut-off time for noise. I see that as a last resort, and wonder what steps I might take in between here and there. I am not going to move again. So, what can I do? Suggestions are most welcome, but here are the parameters: I do not want to be a jerk. I do not want to start a feud. For that reason, I don't yet vocalize at 6 AM when I get up - that, and because my cat would be severely disapproving. I just want to sleep when I want to sleep.

I am singing tonight at Church of the Intercession's (155th and Broadway) Christmas Eve service, and hoping to have a nap before then. And when I get home, I have to sleep. Still hoping for the pony from Santa, you know...