Uploaded to flickr by The Rocketeer
It’s a lovely spring night. You had a little too much to drink at your favorite Hill hot spot so you head home to find your loved one waiting up for you. Before he can put down the remote, things get heated and the next thing you know you are half-dressed in front of a window that is letting in a nice cool breeze and the sounds of your next door neighbor on the front walk. Do you stop what’s just getting started to close the window and draw the blinds? And when things start to get a little too loud do you make an effort to keep your excitement to a whisper?
Living in such close proximity, we are bound to see or hear our neighbors having sex. But the question is, do you care if your neighbors see or hear what happens in your bedroom? You know, the sweet couple that lives next door and probably doesn’t have sex. Ever.
While I will admit that I am not bothered by the idea that a random stranger making his way down the street might catch a glimpse of something as he walks by, I have never been okay with what my sweet next door neighbor might hear through our shared wall. She is cute and demure, and I imagine, exclusive of the two children she conceived, that she never has sex. Especially wild, yell-out-loud, unable-to-control-oneself sex.
How do you feel about the noises that travel through your shared walls or the sights you see through the blinds your neighbor never seems to ever close? Are you concerned with what your neighbors might hear or see? Or do you hear enough to make you want to shower when the moaning stops? How do you handle overheard sex?
Wow, you’ve got some ego. Why is THIH allowing you this forum?
drop it already – we come here for news and conversation about the hill. if we wanted to discuss sex we would go elsewhere. seriously, this is just dumb.
Why does the topic of sex make some people so uncomfortable? I’m an editor here and half of our posts aren’t really about things I’m interested in (kids, for example) but I simply move on to things I am interested in. This is no different. Read if you want to – don’t if you don’t. It’s that simple.
Also, I’m not really sure how this makes the author egotistical.
And, regarding this particular post: this is a very real aspect of Hill living. I know way more than I ever imagined I would about my neighbors’ sex lives by simple virtue of the fact that we all live so close together.
I hadn’t really thought about it but FF is right, this particular post is relevant to Hill life. All urban life I imagine.
if the author is so comfortable talking about sex, why isn’t she using her real name? so much for keeping it real, huh?
Well, considering how judgey people have been (on here and on our writers’ personal facebook accts) I can see why s/he would want to remain anonymous.
Frankly, I’m surprised at all the negativity toward these posts. Ignore them if you don’t like them, people!
I’m sorry Ms. Remmert, I thought that you had a comment board for … comments. These don’t seem to be off topic or troll-like. Just critical. Editor, heal/hear thyself.
What’s the expression…the more you talk about it, the worse you are at it?
I don’t think it’s the topic that makes people uncomfortable. I think it’s that these posting suck and the writing itself is inconsistent with what usually appears on this (normally) interesting blog.
@esp – critical is fine, and if the comments were off topic, offensive or troll like, they’d simply be deleted. My point is that most of them aren’t critical, they’re simply, “I don’t like this b/c the subject matter doesn’t appeal to me personally,” which is totally cool, but doesn’t mean that we’re going to stop giving FF a forum.
@mj – we cover ALL aspects of living on the Hill. Overhearing neighbors going at it is definitely an aspect of living on the Hill!
Well Nichole if you’d like me to be more specific… the post is vain and vapid. If it discussed the ability to hear your neighbors through thin walls including the occasional sex romp that would be one thing. But this crapola of speculating her neighbor probably has only had sex twice in her life and implying that it couldn’t possibly have been “unable-to-control-oneself sex” (which is something only people like Fran apparently have) is unnecessary on a community blog.
>> “we cover ALL aspects of living on the Hill (including sex).”
Well does that mean it’s OK for me to say I find Claudia Holwill incredibly attractive? Does that belong on the blog? No it’s creepy. And so are FF’s narratives.
Jason – Are you saying that you have never publically speculated about your neighbors? Your favorite barista/bartender? The people who owned your home and “romped” there before you did? As Washingtonians, we are all certain to be prudish to some extent, but there’s nothing vain or vapid about this post. Sex can be silly and the author brings up a fine topic for discussion. Relax please!
Pretty sure the speculation was tongue in cheek referring to ff’s first post – but point taken, and if ff would like to change his/her style based on your comments, s/he’s welcome to do so.
As for you finding Claudia attractive – she is, isn’t she? It doesn’t have anything to do with this post, but if we had a “Which THIH writer do you find the most attractive” reader poll, it certainly would be okay. But we – the writers and editors of THIH – get to decide that. While we love. love, love that the Capitol Hill community enjoys our little blog and is (generally) supportive of our efforts here – we can’t please everyone all of the time and do this as a labor of love, and we write about what we want to write about and decide what we think is and is not necessary, unnecessary, appropriate, or inappropriate. Sure – we hope you’ll like it, but it’s okay if you don’t.
Don’t worry, there’s always another post coming in a few hours, or the next day at the latest.
Wow, some of the commenters on here are obviously NOT having sex. These posts actually make this blog a bit more interesting, “keep it up!” (that was intended to be a pun for those crusties’ heads it went over)
It sounds like a lot of people posting on here probably don’t give their neighbors anything to worry about :). To be honest, I’d rather hear my neighbors having sex than fighting, their baby screaming, or having their TV cranked all the way up while they are watching Two-and-a-Half-Men….excuse me, were watching TAAHM. I think this is all part of urban living, and especially on the Hill where we do live in close quarters. In fact, I think it can help bring about more of a sense of community. I’d like to think a well-sex community is a healthy and thriving one, which I think we can all get behind (to sort of speak).
Thanks for the chuckles, Ken 🙂 To respond to the body of the post… part of me wonders what the neighbors hear from us. We hear their baby when he cries, so I am sure there will be times when they hear us as well – whether we’re singing in the shower, watching a noisy movie, or … doing something else. While I don’t think we’ll ever go “balls out” with the shades open, resigning oneself to hearing and being heard is simply a part of city life.
And, to battle “things overheard” – be they babies or bumps in the night – we keep a small fan clipped to our headboard. It creates a pleasant white noise that puts us right to sleep.
Isn’t loud sex now prohibited thanks to the new “noise at night” law that recently went into effect?
I like it when my neighbors provide the voice-over for my nocturnal activities…
To answer the question–no. I don’t care if my neighbors hear me having sex. I don’t care if I hear them doing the same. As someone else mentioned hearing neighbors fight is much more disturbing.
Ha! Yeah, this is an oft-overlooked aspect of dense urban life. Especially in the summer when the windows are open :). I agree with Ascot – better to hear sex than fighting.
Good, funny post. Made me laugh. I think alot of the negative comments are off-base.
Guess I should reconsider ordering that 1/2 hp sybian….
good question posted, especially when you think about when a lot of the houses in the area were built (the victorian era) and what the social mores and values were regarding sex in that era.
True, IMGoph, but keep in mind that despite the victorians’ well-deserved reputation for prudishness, it coexisted with a libertine streak as well.
For example, prostitution was commonplace, and even relatively legal here in DC. It wouldn’t be until the run up to World War I that it would actually be driven underground (and that was simply to control venereal diseases among troops).