The Life of an Introvert

This 4th of July has gotten me pondering the many challenges being an introvert presents, the 4th, of course, being a holiday that most people celebrate by going to crowded cookouts.

Recently, we had a cookout for some staff members who are leaving, and my supervisor said I couldn't count the 4+ hours I spent there, plus the 2 hour commute, as work hours on my timesheet. Which of course makes sense from a logical standpoint, but for me, that WAS work! Working in the office all day and then going to my boss's house with all the people I work with, most of whom I never see in social situations, and getting home at midnight was HARD. Being in groups of people for any length of time absolutely exhausts me, even if they're all people I know well and enjoy hanging out with. I enjoy working on teams and in groups, but I need a certain amount of time each day to process things and be by myself.

There are 2 cookouts going on, one at the neighbor's and one at the waterpark in town (yes, we don't have a post office, but we have a waterpark), and as Brian enjoys grilled food he wanted to go, but as we spent all of Saturday with 2 of his uncles and his aunt, the prospect of spending an unspecified amount of time with people I don't know well or don't know at all is not one I look forward to (thankfully, it's raining, so that solves that).

The fact that we're the only couple left in the neighborhood without children makes things even more draining, as it means that at every gathering I have to endure "Are you pregnant? When are you thinking of having kids?" etc. etc. As to the first question, the obvious answer is no (and I regret to say that I've started to snap "No, I'm infertile!"), but as to the second (which is often followed by "Well, aren't you going to adopt?"), I don't have an answer. Neither Brian nor myself feel any great urging to have children at this point, and we want to wait until he finishes his Master's and we settle wherever we'll be next in any event. Plus, although the tons of children in our neighborhood are cute and, for the most part, very well-behaved, being at parties where I have to contend not only with them but also their parents wears me out twice as fast.

So what's the solution for an introvert who hates phone calls, dreads parties, and has no good answer to the children question? Well, at today at least, it's staying home and watching Star Wars with my husband while eating homemade baked goods.