She fell asleep around midnight, already cursing herself for getting to bed so late. She needed to go to yoga with TM at 9, and she had a pick up rehearsal with her new cast at noon. There was going to be no time for a mud mask or other pampering that she usually gave to herself on Saturdays. Then that night was the last night of the show, and she knew it would be another 3 AM ordeal.
She awoke suddenly at 5:00 AM to some loud people in the alleyway. She held onto sleep, waiting for them to walk and move on. After a few minutes they hadn't moved on, but gotten louder. Suddenly, once she had fully woken herself up, she realized their speech was very clear. She climbed out of bed and opened her balcony door, and the sound became so clear she realized that the people were in her next door neighbors 400 square foot apartment.
They were clearly drunk, loudly yelling about what they were celebrating. One girl kept asking over and over again "Who's dog is this?" So clearly they all weren't good friends. By 5:30, once it became clear no one was leaving, she called downstairs to the doorman. No answer. She sighed, pulled on some pants, and went downstairs. The doorman had the "back in 10 minutes" sign posted. As she waited she looked on the sign in book, and found that literally no one had signed in to be a guest for her neighbors party. How did they manage to get in? She made her complaint once the young punk doorman returned. He said he'd be up in a minute to ask them to keep it down.
She heard the doorman knock on the door next to hers, and suddenly she heard her neighbor, clearly angry and drunk. "I never even see that fucking cunt. She's complaining about me? You know what, both of you can just fuck the hell off." SLAM. The door was closed, the conversation over. She was legit scared of her neighbor at this point, and decided that she guessed she was up.
An hour later, he had finally had enough of his company, opened his front door, and yelled at everyone to get the fuck out. It took two full elevators to get everyone out, and once they were gone he continued to complain, loudly. He certainly had a mouth on him. She managed to tune him out enough to fall asleep for about an hour before she got ready for yoga. Just as she was about to leave, she heard a knock at his dog.
In a real Gladys Kravitz move, she went to her peephole to see who it was. It was 2 plainclothes officers. She didn't call the police! Someone else must have. She wondered if it had been the front desk or another neighbor. She found out later it had been both. The man a floor above her on the other side of the elevators had heard the party, and he got very angry at that sort of thing and always called.
The neighbor never did open the door for the police, but after they left she heard him get in the elevator. She hurried to grab the next one so he wouldn't see her, and made her way to Yoga.
