Adjusting to the City

I was sitting here eating eggs and two short, echoed bangs came from the apartment whose windows face the ones in the living room. Some little yelping noises and then a lot of nothing. Someone beating the carpet? Dropping a few dishes? Why do I always feel like someone near me is getting shot at in this city? And why the hell would I trust my first impulses and ears when my sinuses are so stuffed up that I can't hear anything right anyway? I must really want some justification for my overly-cautious paranoia.