In my quest for 1.a more social life, 2.a bigger circle of people that hover between acquaintance and friend, and 3.experiencing this sleepy city in a new way, I've been out and about figuring out how to connect with people.  

One of the conversations I had with a stranger left me laughing.  He asked me what I do other than work.  What do I do for fun?  

What do I do?  Well, I go to work for 8+ hours, then I come home and watch tv for 6 hours until I go to bed.

Yeah, I didn't really say that.  Even though up until recently it's mostly true.

What I said was that I'm reading books on my bucket list, I'm running to prepare for a half marathon in Puerto Rico in November, summer classes started this week, and this last weekend I volunteered downtown at the Pride Festival.

 He asked, did I go to the Pride Festival with friends or by myself?

Um, since I don't have any friends… I went by myself.

Yeah, I didn't say that either.  I just said that yes, I had gone by myself.  

And your trip to Puerto Rico, is that typical? He asked, do you always go on vacations like that?

I'm sorry, is that typical for anyone else you know?  You mean you don't vacation like that? (don't worry, this is my internat dialogue.)

Nope.  I will have had a year to plan and save and train for it.  Besides, I didn't have a vacation for this year planned yet. And why not Puerto Rico?

He says, wow.  You're more adventurous than I am.  

I laughed.  Really hard.  Internally of course.

You see, I've always thought of myself as a homebody.  I like being home.  I'm just fine there, I can enterain myself, I don't feel like I'm going to die if I don't have someone else's company or somewhere to be.  I can watch reruns for hours.  I used to get home from work on Friday and not leave the apartment until Monday morning, though I don't do this much anymore.

Except, when there is something I want to do, or an event that catches my interest, I'd rather be out doing that than being home.  And, these days, that means venturing out by myself.  Which is fine.  I don't mind that either. I enjoy doing things out and about as much as I enjoy being home.

I guess the point is, I've never thought of myself as adventurous.  Only as practical, responsible, and the planner in my circle of friends.  But now, from this perspective, all that sounds mostly boring. 

I think I'll be striving more for adventurous.