Peas and quiet

The chart on the right says the din is killing us, but it doesn't even mention the one that bothers me the most: the din of nonstop television. I share an apartment with a roommate who has the television on all the time when she's at home. The noise is unremitting, and it's driving me crazy ... especially now that she is between jobs and home most of the time.

Let me paint a picture here ... the apartments in this building are each two rooms wide, a living room beside a bedroom ... and then the next apartment with a living room beside a bedroom. That means, if I'm in our living room, I'm in the room with the television. On the other hand, if I stretch out on my bed to read, I'm between TWO televisions, hers in the next room and the one in the next-door apartment where the man's TV or entertainment center emits a deep booming beat along with muffled words which I cannot decipher.

Let me be clear about my discomfort ... it isn't the volume, but the incessant sound, especially voices that never stop. My friend watches soap operas, in which, I've discovered, conversations are usually shout fests. The characters scream at each other about everything, all the time. Do TV writers believe this is how real people live? Or do they believe it's what people want to watch? I guess so, but I crave the ah-so-wonderful silence in which to think.

To get that quiet time when the words in my head have a chance to come out of hiding, I often sleep during the day so I can be awake during the quiet of night when others sleep. It's the best time of day for me. It's peaceful, it's quiet, it's relaxing and conducive of productive thinking. I visualize peace and quiet.

Oh, yeah, I also visualize whirled peas.

. . .

UPDATE 4-16-12:   I found a great picture of world peas that belongs here.