Saturday, September 29, 2007

Lydia, thanks for checking.

Now, if none of the nearly 17,000 people ahead of me take "fillyjonk," then I'm good.

(It boggles the mind, how many people are going to be on this eventually. I guess I wasn't aware that many knit and used a computer heavily. Because, there have got to be at least 20,000 on now (I am number 36 thousand something), and there were a couple hundred after me - so there will probably be at least 50K people eventually. Scares me just a little bit.)

***

The retreat was okay but I'm reminded once again of what a true introvert I am. I find it ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTING to spend hours with people I barely know, having to introduce myself, and talk about what I do (and make that fake, pained smile when people tell me they either "hated" biology or failed it when they took it), and try to remember names.

And one thing about a lot of women's events - they tend to be a bit more "share-y" than I am naturally. I find it hard to talk on cue about the "narrative" of my life or whatever. (Maybe I should have said, "I keep a blog. Here's the URL.")

I also will note that I seem to attract the chatterbox types to sit near me. (You might not believe it about me having read the blog, but I'm often quite taciturn in real life. Honestly? My favorite part of the retreat was a 45 minute stretch when we had to try to meditate and write - and NOT TALK.)

So I'm really glad my friend agreed that it was preferable to drive home while it was still light - I get a little time to sit and work on my Totoro and try to decompress. (And I see the new Interweave Crochet - the first issue of my subscription - came today. And Yay Interweave Knits - a lot of people on KR complain about their messed-up subscription system but my issue came, intact, reasonably on time (I had just seen them in the store yesterday or so) and it's the fall issue, just like they told me I'd get.)

2 comments:

dragon knitter said...

my husband and my son are the same way. my older son had a marching band invitational, and hubbie volunteered to be a "roadie" (helping load equipment on the truck, taking it off, and helping drag everything out when it was their turn), and took my younger son with him. i was helping with getting all the kids dressed properly (no ankle socks, even if they're black!), and any emergency uniform repairs (i'm getting really good with stitching fast, lol!).

by the time the competition was done, YS was getting antsy, and ready to go home, so hubbie asked if it would be ok if he just took the kid home. the guys said it was fine. however, when i got home, he confessed that he'd had enough people time as well.

and yes, we left our wedding reception early because he'd had enough.

Anonymous said...

My church has annual Ladies Retreat which runs from Friday night to breakfast Sunday morning. It's held at a church camp place 1.5 hours away so you have roommates, etc. I come home exhausted because I'm not used to being with other people 24/7. Even though there is unstructured time during the retreat, most roommates automatically assume you'll spend that time with them. For someone who needs "me" time, this creates problems. Some years I've managed to get a room to myself but that is frowned on. Now that I'm retired, the constantly increasing cost of the retreat makes it was easier for me to just say no to going.

Charlotte