But I don't think that the average person lives on the tightrope of social needs that I do.
Since my divorce I have become both an extrovert and an introvert-- I'm a bitrovert. I need to be around people until I get sick of them, and then I need to be alone until I get sick of myself.
This has been a very eventful week in terms of socializing. On Tuesday, for example, I had four separate social outings. In one day I saw two movies at the theater and ate both lunch and dinner out with people. Except for a few hours in the afternoon, I was out doing stuff from 9 am to 11:30 pm.
I enjoyed it, but only because I had had a lonely evening in the night before, and the following day I spent a solitary day at home (blogging, writing emails, watching TV, hanging with the kitties on a rainy day.) My fun social Tuesday was balanced by a perfect Wednesday of solitude.
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It was a crazy week for old and new friends. For reminiscing, re-acquainting, and getting-to-knowing. And for picking up the check.
Some of the highlights:
- I met up with my best friend from 5th grade. We hadn't seen each other in 23 years, but recently got in contact through Facebook. He lives in the same city as another friend I was visiting, so we met for breakfast.
- I took my nephew to a movie and then out to lunch for the first time. I also saw my niece in a flag corps (band) performance, and went to my other niece's cross country meet. For this week at least, I was a Good Uncle.
- I went to an atheist meeting for the first time in 6 months. I actually enjoyed the conversation this time and met another injured tennis player, so we talked about the game and how much we miss playing. (He's originally from Russia, just like AG, my most recent ex-girlfriend. He's the third Russian that I've met this year. Weird.)
- I finally took my brother's family out to dinner to thank them for helping with the move. We'd been trying to arrange this for almost two months, and I was finally able to make it happen. We went to the Indian place that replaced the Indian place that SnarkEx and I used to go to.
- I saw my (first) ex-girlfriend for the first time in 9 years. She was visiting my town for a school thing so I showed her around. We spent five hours together. She has three kids and is separating from her husband. We talked about marital woes. She looks great, but I am still not interested in dating anyone. (Just to quell any reunion rumors that may show up in the tabloids tomorrow.) Besides, I couldn't bring myself to break her heart again. But since I'm all about friendships right now, I am eager to get to know her again.
- Because I came into some money (long story: I got huge check as a percentage of my realtor's commission on my house because I used a referral service), I was able to pick up the check all week whenever I ate with people: Dinner for the friend I visited, breakfast for my 5th grade friend, lunch for my nephew, and dinner for my brother's family. (I offered to pay for dinner with my ex, but she declined.) It feels good to lose the reputation as "the cheap one" that my friends gave me in college, back when I had no money because I was living on a student budget, working two jobs and paying for college myself.
- While I was out with my ex-girlfriend, I ran into the AG for the first time since we broke up. Weird. Weird and awkward. In fact, it's so weird it deserves its own post (coming soon.)
- I think I might have set a record for the number of blog posts in a week. Over the course of six days I had eight posts. (This is my ninth in eight days, and I have two more in the queue that I plan to write.) It's a good thing a broken clavicle doesn't affect my blogging.
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