It was 1:30 am and I had crew practice in four and a half hours, but the clanging just would not stop. Was it a dream? A nightmare? A resident? I should have known that the luxury of still being asleep was out of the question. I must remember I am an RA.
So, I tried to gather my thoughts on where the noise was coming from. Were the pipes breaking? Was the floor falling? It was so loud that the location was not decodable. Then it stopped. I sat waiting to see if it would start again and I was shocked by the familiar sound. It was the sound of furniture crashing? I recognized immediately that the sounds were coming from the room next door.
I then heard his door open, and I thought he would come knock for help because something had happened in his room. He did not knock. I opened my door and looked out to see my resident standing at the end of the hallway looking at me like a deer caught in headlights as he walks into the bathroom.
Then, out of the room came his girlfriend. It was at this point I decided that I did not want to know what was going on in there. She just looked at me, smiled, and asked if they were too loud.
Then, she apologized, for they were trying to open a can of tuna fish with a hammer. My resident, a hungry basketball player, had resorted to a chisel and hammer to satisfy his midnight cravings.
I, ridiculously speechless, walked back into my room unaware of what I should say.