Cornell: Halloween

My dorm is right next to the main street facing the slope on West Campus. The Cornell chimes sound midday on the weekends and always at 11 PM every night. Since my room has three windows with no central airflow, the only source of oxygen is the windows. I have a choice: (1) close the windows so there won't be any noise but I will die of asphyxiation (not even exaggerating), or (2) leave the windows open so there will be a ton of noise/it'll be cold once it snows but I won't get any sleep.

I've been choosing the latter. But I might switch it up after last night. Yesterday's Halloween festivities brought some great music but there was a seemingly endless stream of people trick-or-treating continuously reminding me of my dumb decision to do linear algebra homework (on the last day, 8 weeks in a row) instead of getting free candy. At 12:00 AM, the music continued—at this point going on for an hour straight—but turned from cool gothic to crazy dissonant. The chimesmaster was just smashing the fuck out of the keys like a four year old that hopped on their parent's Steinway.

After the chimes ended, I could hear what everyone was saying crystal-clear. It was as if the slope's slope had magnified each noise with the focal point being my room up in my tower. Every drunk trip. Every tipsy shriek. Might need to invest in some proper earmuffs.