All Quiet

We've been busier than usual at the apartment; holding parties, movie nights, craft time. It's been a great couple of weeks with great friends, and as I look ahead to the next two weeks away from these people, I am reminded how crucial they are to my day to day life.

All that being said, today was a recharging day. I sat around on the couch fine-tuning my end of the year mix and eating whatever food was left in the fridge. I love these days and usually try to take a couple each week to stay balanced, but lately I haven't wanted to take as many. As I took Chester out on our walk around the block tonight, I was struck by the emptiness of our apartment and the surrounding streets. I'm sure the houses weren't as empty as they seemed, but it sure was quiet. The stillness of it all took me back to memories of living in Illinois and the solitude I experienced in North Georgia my first year teaching. Sometimes these memories can take me to the "dark side" - the sadness, the loneliness, the emptiness - all that crap. As weird as this may sound, I think extended periods of these feelings can lead to nostalgia. In both places (sometimes even in Athens), I used to go days without meaningful contact with people. The only conversations I had were the ones in my head and they weren't always cordial. You wouldn't think anyone would be nostalgic for those experiences, but when you consider the wide array of depressing music I own, you may be fooled.

As I reread some of what I just wrote, I hope it sort of makes sense, but my main point in writing all this is to say that I crave less of that "quiet time/dark side" these days, and I give all the credit to these friends of mine. I used to feel like I needed time away from people to keep from getting burned out on being social, but really, that's just because I've never had a circle of friends quite like this one. That's not to say I wouldn't want to add a few out-of-towners (perhaps from Texas) to the mix, or that newcomers aren't welcome, but I do want to say to TCH, LP, and the R brothers how much I appreciate your friendship and acceptance of everything "jim" this past year....


So please don't move...haha!