In someone else's house.

I just finished house sitting for friends who were traveling, and I had forgotten how odd it can feel to be in someone else's house. I travel a fair bit and I'm comfortable staying in hotels, so when my friends asked I thought "Cool a mini vacation!".

No such luck.

It was fine and I'd do it again in a heartbeat, but it is unsettling in some very odd ways. I don't want to seem crazy but the sounds a house makes at night, from the HVAC unit to pets are all sounds you should know, but sound so alien in a house that's not yours. I traveled a good for work in the past few years so I have a lot of experience sleeping in places, mainly hotels. I always find myself pretty comfortable in hotels. In a hotel it's just the crazy guests down the hall who got drunk and are banging on your door, or the ice machine in the hall, I can't explain why but these things I find easy to dismiss, but not that loud bang I just heard from upstairs it could be anything! (I'm not actually there right now) Was it the cat knocking something off the counter in the kitchen? or was it someone forcing the back door open? Or was it just the air kicking on?

I find it odd where we develop our comfort zones, in crowds, all alone, at home or on the road with no reasonable rhyme or reason. (and home owning friends whose names I won't mention I had a great time)

Wow that was a ramble.