THUD THUD THUD

Someone moved in to the apartment above mine (after someone else moved out of course!) and they are a very very heavy walker.  Like.... very.

If you've never encountered a heavy walker before it's not something that they are necessarily aware of but if you live underneath (or sometimes near) one you know.  

Because of the age and build of this building we hear everything, well not everything, but sound really travels, and more than that, sound, if loud enough, will rattle or shake the building.

And unfortunately, the person who moved in above me walks heavily enough to, without exaggeration, shake my apartment.

The first night they moved in, I wasn't able to fall asleep until they either left the bedroom, or, I assume, got into their own bed.  Their steps shook my bed.  Seriously.  So it's not just the THUD THUD of the feet/heels, it's also a reverberation that shakes things.  It's not really ignore-able.

I'm giving them some time to settle in, and maybe put down some rugs and/or put things up and around that will help baffle the sounds of their phone conversations and phone buzzing and whatever else, but I think I will have to do/say something about it and that is freaking me the hell out.  

So the combo of the noise and shaking/shuddering and knowing that I will have to "confront" (even if polite and well thought out it still feels like a confrontation to me, which I genuinely am not comfortable with) them to ask if they can walk more lightly (which I don't even know if that's a thing people can do?!) is freaking me out and it's been a stressful few days.  Like, big time stressful for me.  

I've typed out a few versions of a note I might leave at their door and I partially hope maybe I run into them naturally in the hallway or something but I know I'll babble because man oh man do I ever feel bad that I'm asking someone to put me first.  Is that logical?  Nope, but it's still how I'm feeling.  But this isn't just the normal "someone walking around" that you get used to in an older apartment, this is a lot.  

But again, I'm trying to cope for the first few days or week to see if things will settle once the "move in" period has passed but omg y'all this has not been an ok few days.

Jason has said he would knock on the door but I think that's too much for me all things considered.)  A few years back a new tenant below me used their portable speaker on their outside balcony (bottom floor has a couple, the rest of us don't) and it shook my walls.  I asked my manager to talk to the person and I guess when they did they said the complaint was from me because I got a knock on my door and that woman confronted me about it being impossible she had shaken my walls.  (This was also during lockdown so getting a knock on the door was uncomfortable to begin with.)  And it's not like it's loud music which could be handled, as I've seen happen before, by a note on all doors saying "we've had complaints, remember noise travels" or something like that... this is one person who is very heavy footed and so it feels really scary for me to deal with.  But the noise and shaking is also driving me nuts, especially when I'm trying to sleep... so... we'll see how this goes, and I hope it goes well and if I do end up asking them to.... uh... walk a little differently?  I hope that goes ok and they understand and just omg this is pushing so many buttons for me.  But also I've lived here quite a long time and a heavy walker is a first for me... as far as I can remember....I've dealt with other noise things but not this.  This is something I'm not sure can be easily fixed like putting on earphones for your music or turning your tv down or something.  This is a human's anatomy and habits.  You know?