alone time and other random things.

This weekend I experienced the perfect proportion of alone time to social time. This is a rare occurrence – usually I lean to one side or the other. Usually it’s the socializing side.

I’ve had what seems to be an abundance of alone time lately – this thrills me. I tend to get panicky if/when my alone time gets threatened. I think it’s probably because I end up in situations where I don’t have alone time for say, 11 months (hello World Race.) I can’t help but wonder…are other people like this? Sometimes I think it’s weird that I can spend so much time alone and have the time of my life.

This married couple I know tells me when you’re married your idea of alone time changes. That, in fact, you can be alone with another person. I don’t believe it – nor do I want to. The wife claims to be an introvert, yet she has alone time with her husband by her side. I get the whole idea of sitting in comfortable silence with someone, of course, but I would never qualify that as alone time. They tell me that one day I’ll understand…this scares me. I feel I need to stock up on alone time now to make up for when I’m married and never experience it again.

On Friday I went to the library to read magazines by myself. The Saturday Evening Post, Psychology Today, Entertainment Weekly. And then I went to the weekly farmer’s market in the town square. I tasted samples and sat on a bench for a while. I walked around and stumbled upon a quaint tea shop – I thought it would make a great date spot. But then I decided no, it would make a great alone time spot. I intend to return with John Steinbeck sometime…so it will kinda be like a date, but I’ll still be alone. Best of both worlds?

On Saturday afternoon I baked by myself. I recently decided to take up baking to relieve my angst. Not that I have an exceptional amount of angst – I just figured I probably have some from being human, you know? Baking is great because you are distracted from any and everything around you. In season two of Grey’s Anatomy Izzy’s fiancé dies, so she quits going to work and bakes like a billion muffins instead. I didn’t understand it at the time, but now I do.

So on Saturday I baked. I was feeling pretty good until I nearly caught the cookie pan on fire and yelled “SO MUCH FOR RELIEVING MY ANGST!!” to the oven. I guess baking didn’t really work like I hoped it would this time around. But at least I got a bunch of delicious pumpkin whoopie pies out of it…

yes, I'm wearing an apron.

This weekend I watched the sun set twice – once on Friday with friends and then again on Saturday by myself. My goal was to watch it tonight (Sunday), but it set at like 4pm or something because of stupid Daylight Saving. I have a pretty strong opinion about this yearly event, as I wrote on my blog four years ago…

Everyone gets so excited over one hour of sleep. Am I truly the only one who understands the calamity of this situation? We are sacrificing months of sunshine and happiness for one measly hour of sleep! As of Sunday I will have lost all desire to function after 5:00 p.m. I wouldn’t be making as big a deal of this if, perhaps, we received an extra hour of sleep every night from now until March. But alas, my only reimbursement for months of apathy is one pitiful hour of sleep.

Sometimes I think I should move to Arizona, because they don’t observe Daylight Saving. Way to damn the man, Arizona.

Anyway…back to this weekend. I attended my first ever 5th of November party (slash Guy Fawkes party.) I figured Fawkes was a mascot (who wouldn’t?), so naturally I thought we’d be watching football. Ha ha! I can be so naive sometimes. Apparently Guy Fawkes was an activist who attempted to blow up London’s Parliament in 1605. To celebrate, we watched V for Vendetta (my first time) and I ended up falling in love with this freaky, masked man. It’s strange what movies can do to a girl’s emotions…

hott

I was so jealous when Natalie Portman got to kiss him…

hott

(But really, you should watch this movie if you haven’t already.)

A movie I will not recommend to you is Tree of Life, which I also watched for the first time this weekend. It stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn…sounds like a hit, right? Think again. If you have a desire to watch this movie save yourself 2.5 hours and look at this picture instead:

oh wow

…because that’s pretty much all the movie was. A bunch of random shots of the Universe interrupted by a few scenes with Brad Pitt. There might’ve been more Brad Pitt scenes, but I feel asleep during the middle of the movie so I wouldn’t know. I woke up and nothing had changed. I used to think I was indie and could appreciate artistic films, but I guess I’ve lost my knack. If I wanted to watch scenes of the Universe I would’ve rented Planet Earth or gone down to Atlanta to hang out with Louie Giglio. There were a few solid quotes, however…

“No one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end.”

On that note, we’ve come to the end of this blog. It’s been dark for hours now and I don’t know how I’m still awake. So goodnight.