Grass is Always Greener

I'm bored. Yup, it's finally happened. I'm not lonely, I'm not terrified, I'm just bored. School doesn't start for a couple weeks and I've shopped the bulk of my shopping. I've been the museums, art galleries, and the movie theatre. I've explored all the paths within walking distance... it's time for some friends. Sure, sure, I've got my elderly crew from the church, met some normal neighbors, and even met another American here, but still... It got me thinking how that social butterfly/lone wolf pendulum sure does swing.

In junior high (the angst filled years) every teenage girl thought she could be more popular and life just wasn't giving her the chance. I could always find some reason that I wanted to leave the house to be social, only to be thwarted by the evil restrictions of my parents. There was always some social obligation you just couldn't make it to, family reunions and baptisms be damned. During this tumultuous time of life, I decided I was a social butterfly.

Then there was high school where you inevitably decide that you are better than the social network. I had true friends who would stick by me to the end. I didn't want mass popularity of the high school royalty, I was better than that... I was a loner. (Who hung out with her best loner friends all the time.)

This personal revelation stuck with me until college, where I joined a sorority. Doors of social opportunity opened like floodgates. You know, parties, and it wasn't so much floods as it was beer. But still, the social interaction took up not only every weekend night (you know, starting with Wednesday night), but the whole of every day because now you had sisters! I don't mean to bash the sorority system, it was a great and wonderful time for me and I have made fabulous friends for life. But... there wasn't a piece of your existence that was purely yours. Everything from my favorite shirt to my friend's birth control (long story) was borrowed or flat out stolen. Hair spray, food, movies, CD's... nothing was safe from the bonds of sisterhood. Especially while living in close quarters, you couldn't pee without company. Being at a small school besides, you couldn't eat the veggie egg rolls at lunch without the whole campus finding out. The novelty of socialite bliss sputtered out about junior year. It was then that I decided I was a loner.

I have believed that until today, where I am a stranger in a strange land. I have been here almost two weeks and I need to chat to someone. I look at spas as places me and my new friends are going to get mani/pedis. I look at a cute restaurant as a place where my new friends and I will have Sunday brunch and catch up on each other's weekly gossip. I buy clothes that my new friends are likely to want to borrow. I am re-entering my socialite phase. Luckily, I have discovered that, much to everyone's surprise, maybe I just want what I can't have. :) So I am out to discover way too many friends that I can later complain about wanting more time away from! The grass is always greener...