In the last couple of months, we’ve been adopted by a new social circle. And, I’ll be honest, it’s mostly pretty great. There’s almost always something to do, and it’s nice having like-minded, interesting adults to talk to who I seem to have something in common with beyond sharing an employer or a kid’s extracurricular. In just the last month, we’ve done a couple of dinner parties, a garden party, and a bicycle outing (and that’s just the stuff I’ve done; my loving spouse, who is generally more available, has been out and about a bit more). Overall, I am having quite a lot of fun, and learning all kinds of new things from these great people. Also, I hope I’m bringing at least a little bit of interest to the party (since I’ve traditionally not always been good at that sort of thing).

I really am glad that after more than a decade in this particular town, I’ve finally got some nice connections forming. while I’m the first to admit that, even at my mildly advanced age, I haven’t found a place where I’m totally comfortable calling “home”; this place, which according to the math I just did, is where I have lived longer than I have anywhere else, is perhaps maybe starting to take on a few home-like attributes.

The peril of being a social butterfly while also being of the textbook introvert personality type*, is that all this social interaction and engagement, while remaining totally entertaining and supremely enjoyable, can be really, really exhausting.

I’ve written a little bit about these tendencies before, though this idea has been on my mind more often lately, as it’s become a bit more personally relevant, given my much more heavily-populated social calendar and fewer opportunities for the rejuvenating solitude that people of my particular stripe need in order to be pleasant the rest of the time.

I suppose this post has ended up being written as a bit of an explanation then, for some of my new friends as they happen upon this little space of mine, that when I occasionally wander off by myself or excuse myself from the crowd for a little while, it’s not that I don’t I don’t enjoy your company, it’s just that I need a little time to recharge before jumping back into the practice of being an engaging and hopefully interesting social companion.

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* – according to the classifications on the linked page, I’m pretty sure I straddle the line between the idealist and rationalist categories.