I am sitting on a miserable little chair between my sleeping grandmother and her oot-of-her-box roommate, and I am about to go oot-my-box too.

The roommate has alzheimers or some form of dimensia. She is generally pleasant, if a tad unintentionally annoying as she makes her standard verbalizations. These start low but rev up to a fever pitch, ending with her either clapping or praying to some audience or saint no one else can see. Wash, rinse, repeat.

She is never lucid, though when we put loud country music on she taps her foot and hoots along. Once mom asked “Do you like to dance” and she turned, focused her eyes, smiled, and said “oh yes!” then continued with her hooting and tapping and nonsense.

When she is napping, sleeping, or in bed preparing to or coming out of, however, she becomes completely intolerable, owing to her incessant teeth grinding. I’ve met folks who grind in their sleep. Usually a light noise that stops after a few moments. No big deal. Perhaps a light recommendation to see a dentist about a bite-guard for sleeping, and “Can I get your number and last name?”
Not her. She grinds making a sound similar to that freaky hairy chick in The Grudge. It has a subsonic sort of rattle/hum to it thats perfectly audible and irritating. This is interspersed with outright teeth chomping that sounds like smacking together two pieces of sturdy crockery. It makes my jaws hurt.

As a write this, she just took the grinding up to 11. One of my favorite isms is “Stop doing X it makes my teeth itch.” Its a wonder that people think I am queer. The grinding she is doing right now is literally causing an intense itch deep inside my scalp/brain/right ear. The longer I sit here listening to it the deeper the sound penetrates my body. The itch continues in my head but is spreading down a track of nerves or something all the way into my… well let’s just say all the way into my core. I’ve never experienced anything so horrible in my life. JESUS H CHRIST TIME FOR A BREAK.