On Being Alone

I have forgotten how to be alone. This weekend Kevin was out of town for work, so it was just me and the dog. I usually like a little “me” time here and there when Kevin is out of the house and I can throw in a chick flick or read a good book and not feel guilty that I am ignoring the love of my life. But 2 days of alone time is a little much for me, so I called in the troops – my sisters and my mom – for a girls’ night on Saturday.

But then I got sick. Girls night was off. And I was alone. And sick. And very whiney about it.

What to do when you are alone and sick? I watched a ton of movies (all three Pirates movies and even a couple of dumb Lifetime movies). Read a book. Slept. Sat on the floor with my dog. I got really sick of being alone. I am really not that good at it for more than a day.

Maybe I was never good at being alone. I went from a big family of eight to a college dorm of 300 to a house of 6 girls to a wee apartment with one man. But I have always been surrounded. Never on my own. Weird. Because I am NOT a people person or extrovert at ALL. Just ask my friends or my husband, one thing I say all of the time is “I hate talking to people.” Then they remind me that I don’t hate talking to people, I hate talking to people I don’t know. Which is true. I find it tedious and uncomfortable which generally makes it unbearable. So I don’t like to be alone. And I don’t enjoy throngs of unknown people. I am an intro-extrovert. Or something like that.

So I am glad that Kevin is coming home today. I am glad that I had to drag my butt out of bed today to go to work so that I could interact with the few co-workers that are in the office this week. I am glad for small doses of alone time but even more glad that most of my time is full of the people I love and whom I throw all of my extrovertedness to.