Apartment dwellers have certain habits that house-dwellers do not. When I lived in apartments, I noticed that people often would sit outside in their cars and honk the horn instead of finding a place to park on the street and manually fetching their passenger. In my last apartment, no one seemed to understand that the community recycling bin wasn't for socks and broken umbrellas. Having lived in apartments for the last 7 years and a dorm before that, it didn't seem right to turn the TV up loud enough to hear it in the kitchen, or to talk loudly in the hallways at 2AM. Now I can, and it's great.
We've always had an intercom or keyed entry system, and it has been years since random people could show up at our door. We never had trick-or-treaters. The only people who came to the apartment were people whose visits were planned, or whose arrival at our front door was delayed by the intercom and stairs. Now, it's an old habit of mine that because no one sees what I look like when I'm at home, sometimes I stay in half of my pajamas or wear paint-smeared winter clothing, or even leftover bits of costumey things (I'm a seamstress); whatever I pick up off the floor that speaks "utility" and doesn't come close to matching. These are my cleaning, research and sewing clothes. But people can knock on my door now, wondering if I can do some sewing for them, or could they mow my lawn, or would I like to join their church? And I don't know what to do without the buffer! It would take too long to run and put real clothing on. So I peep through the hole and usually open the door, and always feel embarassed afterward. People frequently ask if they've just woken me (at 2 or 3 in the afternoon). I need to learn.
