The Here and Now

Have you ever been to an amusement park? Disney Land, Six Flags, Kings Island.

Have you noticed the constant playing of music?

The loud speakers adorning every lamppost and sign pole sing out in a near constant barrage of songs, announcements, and repetitive nonsense.
I have been to many parks.
I have barely noticed the noise.
I never gave a thought to those workers who spend every day listening to the same sounds.

I never once considered how bloody annoying it could be.

I live in an amusement park.
My bedroom window is 4 ft from one of those bloody speakers.

Every day I hear the same songs. Everyday they wake me up at 9:30 with some variation of silly sing song-y suffering.
For the past few weeks, while gearing up for Halloween we have one particularly heinous song that plays about every 15 minutes.

“Halloween Halloween, what do you mean?
Halloween Halloween, what do you mean?
Cats and bats and jack o lanterns too.
Halloween Halloween, what do you mean?”
And so on. And so forth.

It plays around in my head. Rattles me awake in the morning. Lulls me to sleep during my afternoon nap.

In the year that I have been here this atrocious song has ranked higher than any other in the levels of awfulness they put us through.

Worse than the jazz version of “10 little bugs in a bed, the little one said, ‘roll over roll over”
Worse than “I like ice cream, I don’t like onions.”
Worse than “Little bear little bear, what do you wear”
Worse even than George Michael sings Christmas Carols.

One week until Halloween is over, which means that in one week I will no longer be forced to listen to the childish vocals and creepy melody.

But then, they might just start the George Michael up again…