My new favorite idiom: "as cool as the other side of the pillow."

It's a rite of passage in apartment life to deal with direct views into other people's windows, and their views into yours. I've mostly bypassed this so far, being on the inside bottom of the 'U' in my dad's building, and on the outside of the 'U' in college, with no other buildings nearby. But now I'm directly opposite a small 'U' in the adjacent building, giving me an excellent view at about 25 feet into the kitchens of 4 different apartments, as it happens. The resident of one of these apartments seems to do the same thing every evening from approximately 9pm-2am. He sits in his kitchen, and looks in my general direction. His window is half a story above mine so usually I can just see his head. It's quite strange; he doesn't appear to be staring at me, and yet he clearly isn't putting in any special effort not to do so. Unless he has a TV right next to his window, I can't figure out what he might be doing. Occasionally he is seen to talk on the phone, but otherwise he mostly just sits there. He is an enigma, a study in modern boredom. Sometimes his apparent unwavering stare makes me rather uncomfortable, in a Sartrian way. He is always watching, always judging. When I was constructing my studio (yes, I will get around to writing about that some time) I delighted in imagining my neighbors wondering why I was hanging from my ceiling with a dust mask on my face and a drill in my hand for half the night. But now he can see the relatively dull routine I've returned to.

The other day I was practicing loudly and perhaps ludibriously for a performance when I saw him come to his window, presumably to see what the racket was about. I immediately stopped playing and cowered in the small part of the room not visible to him, and then after waiting a bit, furtively closed the big panel that slides over my window to seal it. Perish the thought of him (be)rating me, then resuming the stare. Times like that, I am glad for my big heavy panel that shuts out the world.