What are the positives of living alone?
The biggest positive is that I can have my tablet blasting out a book or the tv blasting out music without any concern as to how it might bother anyone else. Sadie can always go find a quiet spot, if she wants one.
You can get up when you can't sleep and watch tv or turn on all the lights and do anything you want like go to my office etc. anytime of the day or night.
You can also sleep as long as you want without anyone disturbing you. I usually get up in the night for awhile and then sleep longer in the morning.
You can eat anytime you want, anything you want without feeling you need to make a real meal if you are not in the mood. Sadie does not care. Peanut butter sandwiches, why not?
When we lived in a big house, it did not matter because you could usually shut your door and be as noisy as you want and not bother anyone, but these little open houses are not really sound proof.
And if you do not feel like talking you don't have to and you don't have to listen to anyone if you are not in the mood. And you do not have to listen to someone else's tv or music.
Of course, the biggest negative is you do get lonely!!!
I have been alone more than I have been with family in my life...not sure why that is and people say you could get married if you wanted to, well, not that easy.
I went to work for SBA four years after Richard passed away. When I was at work, I was surrounded by men, all of them very friendly, nice, mostly younger than me and mostly married. The ones who are running around single are not necessarily marriage material...most of them thought I was younger than I was. In fact, when one of our team and I both came in late one morning the teasing began. I said, "Hey, I am old enough to be his mother!" And I guess I was a little loud, the guys in the next cubical were having fun listening, I heard. Funny thing is we did enjoy running around together later, but there was still that age factor.
And one time on the bus, I was on the way to the mall, and some of the guys were behind me. It was early evening but the driver from the hotel would pick me up at a certain time so I often went. There was not always someone to run around with. One of the guys said, "Hey, who are you meeting at the mall? Why don't you give us a chance?" Funny, what went through my mind is that it is strange how an old man who you knew as a teenager always looks young to you, but an old man you never knew when he was young, he just looks like an old man!!
I love the romantic story about James Coburn I think, or one of those old guys. He had a high school sweetheart who he left and made it big in the movies, but one day when they were older and had both had their other life, he came back, walked in her front door with an empty suitcase and skooted it across the floor and said, "Pack and come with me!" Or something like that. Somehow you never forget those early crushes...they never grow old.
