Sociability

The main reason I got a job wasn't to ease financial pressure, or to finance trips to Alabama that I no longer need to take, it was to give myself a chance, meagre though it might be, at a social life that wasn't entirely dependent on some form of long distance communication. It's hard to make friends, or even acquaintances, as adults. It's even harder when you don't take a class, volunteer, have a job, or have any other reason to see the same people on a regular enough basis to learn their names.

I haven't really had a chance to feel isolated here. I had all that family staying with me, I had trips to look forward to, I had this bizarre long distance relationship taking up a (definitely too large) place in my emotional life. But I could see the very real possibility of lonliness setting in with the snow and the cold of a mountain winter. So I got a job.

Last night I went out for a drink with two girls from work. They're both 26, funny, and interesting. In the bar, between them, they knew 80% of the people there. And it was pretty crowded. In spite of feeling very very aged (don't even get me started on the lectures on how to stalk MySpace cuties I got from one of them while killing time at work), I had a good time. We talked about Christmas trees, and going out for sushi next Friday (yes, you can get sushi in the inter-mountain west . . . and yes, I agree that this is not necessarily a good plan but . . .) And I felt, like maybe, if I really try, and I master my anti-social tendencies, I could cobble together some sort of social life here. Right around the time that I run out of money and have to move.