Living alone affords you many luxuries not afforded those who live with other humans — the ability to be uncivilized.
Ice cream instead of breakfast? Yes, please!
Leaving the kitchen in disarray until morning? Absolutely.
Wandering around all weekend in my jammies? Frequently.
Eating dinner with a spoon instead of a fork? Definitely
Cue the needle scratch on the record.
Yes, I do those. All of those. Not all the time, but with some regularity. Does that mean I am completely uncivilized? Absolutely not. You can still take me out in public and I promise not to fart, burp, or eat with my hands. I promise to shower, fix my hair and make up and will not scratch my butt in public.
But it is interesting to me how quickly these things fade away when you live alone. When there’s no one there to give you the “are you freaking kidding me??” look when you are in your jammies at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. There is a certain sense of accountability when you live with someone else.
I have lived alone for the past five years, with the exception of a year and a half when I tried living with a roommate and shared a house. That taught me one very important lesson — I am best living alone. I don’t tolerate others in my space, or their idiosyncrasies. I love coming home on a Friday night, closing and locking the door, changing into my nightgown, fixing dinner, and eating it while sitting in front of the TV watching one of my TV shows on my DVR, or a good movie. I have a very people-oriented job that I love, but that leaves me exhausted and drained at the end of the day. I am an introvert by nature (which sometimes people misinterpret as being “anti-social” — not true. But that’s another post for another day) so interactions with people drain my energy, unlike an extrovert whose interactions with others energizes them.
Last night after I fixed my dinner, and I knew I was going to be eating it in front of the TV, I pulled a spoon out of the drawer instead of a fork. This dish involved rice, and rice sometimes doesn’t do well with forks. So I ate my dinner with a spoon. Sometimes I do this for expeditiousness sake.
Living alone for me has many, many positives, and few negatives. I can do what I want, when I want, and I am rarely lonely. I am also involved in a virtual world called Second Life, and I have many friends there. If I feel the need for company, I can call a real life friend on the phone. I can go into Second Life and talk to real friends in a virtual environment. I am not lonely. But I am alone. I choose to be alone. It would take someone really special to make me want to stop living alone.
Meanwhile, I sometimes eat dinner with a spoon. I sometimes wear my jammies all day. Life is too short to be anything but happy!
~ Kay
Living Life On My Terms 