A new awkwardness has bloomed between myself and my upstairs neighbors. As usual, I’m probably the only one who thinks it’s awkward. Let me explain.

I suppose my main concern about my vibrating apartment was that it might be something more serious, like leaky pipes or an explosion-ready boiler. I didn't assume anything dirty, but I guess in the back of my mind I was thinking that it was something I shouldn't ask about. In the heat of disturbedness I went out in the hall and listened. There was definitely a machine running upstairs. I was still worried, so I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

For the record, we in this building are not door knockers. We come and go according to our own schedules and we pretty much leave each other alone. Knocking the young couple's door felt like an invasion.

The man from upstairs, whose name I won’t use, answered.

I said, “Hi, um… I’ve got a silly question, is your apartment shaking?” This was the best way I could phrase it. I felt that it wasn’t really shaking, but vibrating. However, I could not think of a way to use the word “vibrating” without implying something.

“Oh, sorry I was trying out a new machine.”

Ah, that was it! It wasn’t anything serious, he was just trying out… a new… machine? My concern was replaced by curiosity, but fortunately, not enough to pursue the question any further. In fact, I REALLY didn’t want to know any more. I launched into a flurry of words just to keep him from thinking that he had to say any more.

Note: Read these next few lines very fast to hear how it sounded when I said it:
“Oh, that’s it I was worried it was the pipes or the boiler I went down stairs and checked but I couldn’t feel it down there so I just ignored it for a while but I got really worried that it might be something serious you can just keep doing what you’re doing it really wasn’t very disturbing I just wanted to be sure it wasn’t the pipes or something OK thanks bye.”

I decided to leave it at that, and not to speculate it any further.

Tonight, while taking out my garbage, I ran into him again.

He said, “So was it really bad?”

Me. “Oh no, I just wanted to be sure it wasn’t anything serious.”

“It’s on wheels, I wonder if it might be better if I took those off and padded it.”

“Oh, you don’t even have to do that, I just wanted to be sure it wasn’t the pipes or the boiler. You can just keep doing what you’re doing.” (can you believe I actually said that?)

Was he being vague intentionally? I’m sure if I asked him, he’d tell me what it was... but maybe he was trying to avoid saying it. Maybe it's a rotor rooter and I was feeling all awkward over nothing, as usual.