View with a room

I delight in running through the neighborhood at night because it allows you the chance to really see into people's houses.

Okay, that sounds creepy. I'm not talking about in a peeping tom sort of way, but more in a I'm running by, the blinds are open, the lights are on, and you can just see in enough to see how it's decorated, see people in their "natural habitat," and make up a little story in your head about life inside of that house. No? Just me? Come on, I'm sure others do that too.

At any rate, when the place next door to me was demolished a couple of weeks ago, it suddenly left me as the corner lot and allows for many runners, drivers, general loiterers, a nice view into my home and my natural habitat--oh, what stories they must make up based upon what they see. Suddenly the bamboo roman shades I loved so much, and loved for their light filtering as opposed to their privacy keeping, seem like the wrong purchase for window coverings.

As nice as it is to have the behemoth of a duplex gone--I'm getting so much more natural light now--it has left me feeling a little exposed. Not only can people spy on me as I'm sitting at my dining room table on my laptop composing sheer brilliance--ahem, like right now--but also when I make a mad post-shower-towel-clad-nearly-naked dash from my bathroom upstairs to my bedroom. Note to self: Make sure robe is in the bathroom, BEFORE you get in the shower.

It has also left me exposed in another way. For some reason, the tearing down of that duplex compelled the marinara jar to reach out and make contact. Why? I don't know? Because that duplex was something we had in common?! He e-mailed me a week ago, made trite small talk about the duplex and random inconsequential things, and then let me know he broke his phone and no longer had my number and that he was hoping he could get that from me. Needless to say, I haven't responded yet.

With the speed they construct townhouses in this city, I can only hope they are on an accelerated development plan. They can take away all that natural light, I don't need the exposure.