I was late to a meeting(probably something like at Aims' job) and the other people at the meeting let themselves in my place...

That is totally unacceptable.

I felt totally invaded and flipped out like a mammal.

I don't blame you.

People who have no ethical qualms about entering into your apartment without you there may also have other questionable privacy issues.

they had cover, though, the old "We were SO worried..." bit.

Nope. If they were worried, they only get one representative to check on your welfare, the rest stay the hell out.

I once came back to my dorm room to find that a couple of new acquaintances (later friends) had gone into my dorm room (My room mates let them in) and taken my brand new monopoly game to play i their room.

They couldn't understand that I didn't give a damn about the game itself, it was the principle.

OTOH? It didn't help I had full stage makeup on and the situation ended with them trying to poke fun at my mascara....

I once came back to my dorm room to find that a couple of new acquaintances (later friends) had gone into my dorm room (My room mates let them in) and taken my brand new monopoly game to play i their room.

They couldn't understand that I didn't give a damn about the game itself, it was the principle.

Yeah, I felt that way when I came home one day and discovered my two sublettors watching my Gilmore Girls DVDs. I can't remember whether I told them then that it'd be nice if they asked first, but they watched other DVDs as well without asking. It made me twitchy.

Actually, they weren't even my sublettors. They were my roommate's, since we had separate leases.

{{{Daisy Jane and family}}}

{{Glamcookie}} Don't stress her out with your good intentions, relatives!

Twitchy? Um, it would make me stabby. Did they borrow you underwear, too?

People are damned inconsiderate.

I gotta say I'm not sure it would occur to me to ask about watching a DVD, if they were in a shared living room or similar arrangement. It's not underwear. (Unless you store your DVDs in your underwear drawer. And if you do I don't want to know.)

After you said something, assuming you did, would be a different matter.

They definitely did not respect my privacy, Daniel. I hated living there. And I was only ten minutes late...if I'd been longer would they raid the fridge, too? I think I'm really private because I have to give up so much privacy out of physical necessity...when I have some, I guard it. "What is wrong with your life?/Why you gotta mess with mine?" But it was funny cause they were completely unprepared for my wrath.

I gotta say I'm not sure it would occur to me to ask about watching a DVD

Yeah, it's not the worst thing in the world. What bugged me was that when I came home and found them watching it, I would have expected something like, "Hey, hope you don't mind," or whatever rather than assuming that, hey, everything in this place is ours to do with what we want.

I once finished off my roommates half bottle of Diet Coke and replaced it with a full bottle when she was away for a long weekend. It pissed her off.

Not even the point that her half bottle would have gone flat seemed to soothe her rage.

Nobody touches my stuff or comes into my home without my permission! Good grief.

If my DVDs or books were out openly in a common area, then I probably wouldn't be bothered, but if a roommate or guest went into my room to get them, I would be angry.

OTOH, getting angry about the sanctity of a half-bottle of flat Diet Coke seems over the top even to me. If I were really looking forward to having my Diet Coke and it wasn't there, I'd be irritated, but you more than replaced it.

I had a roommate throw out 11 eggs once. I'd bought a dozen and one broke, messily, on the way home. So I put them in an older container which had a long-past sell by date on it. So I understood her reasoning, but I did wish she'd asked. On the whole she was pretty considerate, though.