Even after 6 months, this apartment living thing is proving difficult to adjust to.  I miss my privacy.  I don't just miss privacy in my own home where I have no guestroom to hide in for reading and no office door to shut and yell "I'm working!".  There is no privacy from the neighbors either.  We know when they shower, they know when we shower.  We know when they use the bathroom, they know when we use the bathroom.  We hear them argue, they may hear us argue though our volume is definitely lower than theirs.  In fact I know way too much about some of these people though I probably wouldn't recognize them on the street.  I know the couple upstairs sleep separately.  She's in the bedroom, he sleeps on a pull-out couch that opens with a screech every night around 10.  I know that the neighbors across the hall fry way too much and eat fish at least once a week.  I know that the neighbors who share a wall with us have two grandmothers who babysit.  One is very strict and the other plays games and lets the kids stay up late.  I don't know this much about my neighbors in Maine after 20 years.  I miss the silence of my own 4 unshared walls, where if I have the TV off there is not a voice to be heard.

I go back to the DMV on Thursday to get my test date.  I've been doing 3 to 5 practice tests a day for the past few weeks.  I usually pass but every once in a while I mess up.  Argh.  And then the real fun begins.  We'll have to start car shopping soon.  Oh, joy to think of the hours of paperwork that await me to buy a car, get it inspected, registered and insured in Italy.  xxoo me