5 - What the fuck are the upstairs neighbors doing

For MicroBlogVember

I've lived in the same suburb of a major urban area all my life and the only upstairs neighbors I've ever had were my parents. The millennial thing. You know.

The first house I lived in had a stairwell that led straight into the master bedroom, which was the second floor, and we were only allowed up there intermittently. I later learned that it used to be a one-story house and my carpenter grandfather added a second story addition when my older brother was born. This has always been slightly bizarre for me to think about because I only ever knew my grandfather post-Alzheimer's, never moving from his big rocking chair in The Desert.

We moved into the current house - about 10 minute's drive from the old one, in the same town - when I was still in elementary school. This one has an actual upstairs with multiple bedrooms. A couple weeks after we moved in, some family friends visited and I stopped their youngest kid from going upstairs; after all, I'd always been told guests were not allowed Up There. I was scolded in front of everybody.

Also, for years the master bathroom was the only decent shower in this house. There's one downstairs which we never used because it's not near the bedrooms, and the one in the middle hallway had a showerhead almost completely crusted over with minerals until I replaced it. When my brother or I needed to take a shower, we'd just cut through a corner of the master bedroom, regardless of the situation or hour of the day.

As for what the fuck the Upstairs Neighbors were doing most of the time? If the sun was down, my parents were watching TV from their bed. They watched a lot of Boston Public, and after that, House M.D.. My mother still watches a lot of Hallmark Channel from exactly the same position.