I work with people all day, and when I come home, I don’t
feel like seeing or speaking to anyone until I go back to work in the morning. It’s
not very warm and fuzzy, but it’s true. It has recently come to my attention
that, because of this tendency toward hermitville, I have successfully eliminated
nearly all opportunities for face-to-face encounters with human beings outside
of work.
While this satisfies my hermit tendencies perfectly, it
was decidedly inconvenient when I needed to talk over a big and possibly
life-changing decision recently.
As I made and weighed lists and struggled with the pros
and cons of the decision, I longed to kick it all around with a real person, someone
who knew me well and was somewhat obligated to listen to me yammer on and on.
I am between BFFs and between men at the moment. (Note:
It is best if these two states are not experienced simultaneously.) Therefore,
there is no one in my life to perform the task of Sounding Board. Don’t feel
sorry for me. I prefer this most of the time and created the situation myself.
And, to be fair, I do have my parents and my children, but they all go into “Play
it safe and don’t forget to keep your gas tank topped off” mode, as they
should. I really wanted someone to weigh all the facts, know my heart and still
possibly say, “Oh, just go for it. You only live once. What’s the worst that
could happen?”
So, where was I going to find that someone on short
notice? You don't exactly drag in a
Facebook acquaintance for a deep heart-to-heart about your future any more than
you'd ask them to come take a look at a questionable mole on your back.
Speaking of impossible-to-see moles, I made an
appointment to have my doctor look at a mole on my back that had me worried. He
said it was just a patch of dry skin. Really?? I was paying roughly $185 for a
patch of dry skin that a BFF or male companion could have diagnosed for free?
I was really tempted to get my money’s worth out of that
visit: “So, Doc. I have a big decision I’d like to run by you….” He was
somewhat obligated to listen to me, after all.
No, I didn’t drag him into it, but if I insist on maintaining
this otherwise agreeable hermit status, I might just sneak in a BFF-ish chat
next time I go in for a check-up. It’s nice to know there is someone somewhat
obligated to listen to me yammer on and on, after all.
