Battle of the Sounds

In the past couple years, I've learned that I am a kind of person who comes very close to a nervous breakdown (literally) when there are any sporadic/obnoxious/loud noises that I can't control. Steady noises that I can control are fine. In fact, I sleep much better with a steady noise, such as a fan or distant traffic. Now, when I first moved to this terrible place last semester, I noticed that the girls living above me walk rather heavily. At first I thought they were guys, and initially blamed the thundering footsteps on the fact that these apartments' floors are paper thin. I have since figured out that these neighbors are girls, softball girls who are rather beefy and always, always have a really mean look on their faces.

Over the past two months, I have engaged in pounding on the ceiling to try to get them to be a little quieter, for they have resorted to stomping around the room at all hours of the night and day. I'm not sure what their problem is, specifically the girl whose bedroom is right above mine, but it really seems that she never sits down or sits still. Perhaps she is on speed, or likes to pace (obnoxiously), but if she is home, I can count on hearing her march for two hours and can point to exactly where she is at any given second. Also, the footsteps seem to be getting louder every day.

Last night was terrible. I got back from a fun day in El Paso, exhausted, around 9 pm, and at about 10 I was in bed ready to pass out. I fell asleep rather quickly, but about 11 o'clock I was awoken by the elephant. I tried to block it out, because usually she calms down eventually, or leaves. But not this time. Every time I began to drift off again, she would start stomping around like there's no tomorrow (which may have been just as well because the past hour and a half the same thing has been going on). The thing is, unlike most nights when it finally stops (usually takes a while), this went on for almost 4 hours. 4 HOURS!!!!!!!! I pounded on the ceiling with my handy dandy wooden plank (I call it my Shut-Up Stick) nestled by my bedside, and the last time I did so, she resorted to exaggerating her giants' walk. I promise she was doing it on purpose. I am not sure when I finally fell asleep, but throughout the four hours I was continuously getting woken up and being frustrated, because all I wanted to do was sleeeeeep and there was nothing I could do about it.

I don't talk to the management about it because I promise you that they wouldn't do a single thing. If you lived here, you would know what I mean (I won't get into every single reason why the management here does not know how to run a complex, but I can guarantee they won't help). Anyway, as said before, the past hour and a half I have been hearing them (or just her, who knows) running around the apartment, dropping heavy things, etc. And I am scared (yes I admit it) to go talk to the girls about it because they are bigger than me, genuinely mean looking, and they could probably break me if they wanted to.

I hope I can keep my nerves for one more semester. I can't wait to move out.

Other noises that have been pushing me to the verge of a nervous breakdown:
My bird when he won't shut up even when I cover his cage.
When people are outside playing basketball.
The strange creaking/dripping noise that is in the wall between my bathroom and bedroom.