A Room of One's Own...Or More So

I had The Apartment Dream right before I woke up a while ago. Everybody in NYC probably has had this dream at some point; mine's recurring, though different every time. It's the one where you're in the back of your apartment and suddenly you discover a whole new room, or series of rooms, or a loft, or a whole other apartment, that you never knew was there. And you are so happy!

I usually find a new, modern, loft-style addition somehow tacked on to the back of my East Village Victorian-vintage railroad flat. I've had the dream ever since I first moved here in 1967...
Sometimes it's a huge, empty loft with many rooms (which makes me nervous, as the security doesn't seem up to par and I'm afraid of someone sneaking in through all the vast emptiness I can't bolt or keep an eye on), sometimes it's a sort of extension that leads down to the backyard and an adorable little carriage house... it's always slightly different.

I thought it was strictly a New York thing, a reaction to perennially tight quarters, but people all over seem to have it. Men and women alike.

Today's was a new variant: I had actually moved into a brand-new spiffy high-rise, but didn't like it much 'cause the previous tenant's stuff was still there, and then I discovered a secret door in the back of the bedroom leading to an old-style pre-war flat with pocket doors and high ceilings and antiquey detailing, and was a lot happier...

But you know, if I actually HAD all that space,I'd just fill it up as crammed and cluttered as the place I live in...