Sometimes there are some advantages of living in a really small building with really small apartments. I realized it yesterday, the first time since I moved into my new condo that I actually missed my old building.

I wanted to open a bottle of wine and I have an old waiter-style corkscrew that I’ve used the last couple of times. The thing is I don’t drink a lot of wine, I don’t even have glasses, so I never bought a real corkscrew. Apparently wine companies are starting to make corks out of rubber and not real cork, Charlene just told me that it is because the cork tree is getting extinct. So my dodgy corkscrew did not work with this modern cork. I was not being able to put it out.

The first thing I thought was to ask the neighbours if I could borrow a corkscrew. But here is the tricky part about that: even though I live in a building with 495 apartments, I have not met any of the neighbours. I think the size of the building might be a factor to that. So I have only seen my next door neighbour once while she was leaving in the morning and she introduced herself and told me to come by anytime. I thought I’d knock on her door with the bottle of wine, have it opened and that’s it, after all any normal person has a corkscrew in their house, even me, but of course with my luck, mine is a piece of crap.

Anyway, I went and knocked on the door, the dog barked and I heard noise inside. Finally the husband opens the door but just a little crack. I could look inside and it was all dark. He was wearing a robe and looked kind of funny. I didn’t think they would be sleeping since it was 6:30 in the afternoon. But I am sure I interrupted something. The robe-wearing and dim lights were a sure sign of it. Never opening the door completely, he came back with the corkscrew and gave it to me. Since I was carrying the wine bottle, I offered to open it right there on the corridor and give it back immediately, but he told me to give it back when I was done (did he mean in two minutes? Seven? I’ll never know).

So later last night (at about 8:30) I went back next door and knocked to give it back but they did not open the door. Now I have it in my apartment and I don’t know what to do, Charlene says: keep it!, my mom says: give it back with a box of chocolates or something.

After the whole ordeal, I called Sheryl, my old neighbour, to tell her how much I missed her. If I had been in my old building she would not have just lent me the corkscrew, she would probably have given me a fresh bottle of wine to drink by myself. Anyway she said they were probably having sex, and I guess she’s right. People have sex at the oddest hours. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I am pretty sure that I interrupted my neighbours while they were having sex. How embarrassing!

Of course today I am going to Williams Sonoma to get a brand new corkscrew for myself. It’s the last time something like this happens.