Apartment Complex Ninja

I would rather prefer it if I could live alone in a house with a decent amount of vacant land around it. That way, there would be no distractions or social hazards around. I could come and go without any fear of encountering and getting entangled in conversations with people I don't want to talk to. Apart from that, there would be no possibility of stepping on toes, as I easily could here in a metaphorical sense around the laundry machines, the mail boxes or in the parking lot. Lastly, there would be no non-human obstacles as I return and head out.

Enough wishing, however. Here's how I deal with what is. It requires some humble, mundane stealth. Mostly, I can evade undesirables by not walking around much on the ground floor. The complex is a two level rectangle with a courtyard in the middle. A staircase at either end takes you up to most of the second level, which is broken up into a few parts. I live in the large main part. My natural inclination would be to take the first staircase whether coming home or leaving. That would have me walking on the ground floor every time I leave, and that leaves me open to unwanted encounters. It also helps some to enter from the little adjacent parking lot when possible, but that only happens when I am coming from the west and someone has activated the gate.

What precisely am I avoiding? Perhaps nothing that would upset conventionally social people. There are some cats in the building that I hate, but my plan does not successfully keep me away from them as I would like, because they know how to use the stairs. As I walk along the upper level, a cat will run a little, then look back to see if I've stopped or turned back. I never do, and they run a little at a time until they get out of my path. I guess they're worse about avoiding contact with others than I am.

The human element is dealt with more successfully by my tactics. Now, there are some surprisingly cool people in my building, and I would welcome more encounters with them, only not at times when I'm leaving, because I tend to be in a hurry. It's hard for me to break off conversations. Better to avoid even the pleasant ones on the way out. It doesn't matter much, because I don't encounter the ones I like. I encounter the rest. I guess it's a scheduling thing. At best, I have nothing to say to them, and I have to imagine this is mutual. At worst, I really don't want to encounter them, because the only things to be said on my end are bad things. I can't say whether that's mutual, but it would be easier to imagine it is.

As long as I stick to the upper level, those unwanted contacts are at a minimum. That's how it is for now, until the isolated single occupant home I above envisioned comes to be. Maybe I would actually benefit from something more like how it is, so long as it could be all good people. Regrettable that I'm not consulted on those who move in.