On Vox: Thoughts on 'Why I don't go [back] to @places [alone]'? Part One

[adric]

There was that Con thing, which managed to avoid without too much trouble.  I had the usual excuses of qw{ money never_been_before crowded } and to that one I added quietly that I wouldn't want to go alone. This kicked off a line of inquiry related to the forced socialization programme.

Hmmm.. Freshman year, at a very small school, I hit it off (that is the expression, yes?) with the entire collection of other weirdoes, generally collected around the Astronomy Club. We went to Huddle House almost every night and hung out there till decent hours of the morning, or would just bum around on the sectional furniture in the Stupid Center on campus. I cannot at the moment recall quite how I met any of them, although in at least one case I think it was because I was lounging in the Stupid Center..  A pattern quickly developed whereby we all clung together for support and protection, and we had goofy fun which mostly involved bad television and talking.

Sophmore year, there was a similar phenomenon. This time it was the anime geeks, and there were no young women in the core croup. (At YHC the group was primarily female, most of them upperclassmen).

After I moved back home and went to work, and then eventually to community college I didn't 'hang out' regularly with anyone until I met sophocles and we glommed onto each other. We then spent the next few years seeing each other once or twice a week with a mix of watching bad telly, playing billiards poorly, sparring and sitting for hours at Waffle House commiserating with each other and the other regulars.  The vast majority of the time was spent on that last bit.

Then, again without any useful literary transition, there was the Cyber Cafe of Rainbow Doom.  A larger venue, a much more varied group, and somehow I got in the habit of intentionally leaving home and driving there alone. And nearly always leaving in the same manner.

Current observations: I am reluctant to go out anywhere alone, even putting off mildly important errands on the chance of getting some one to go with me.  this not to say that I don't buy food or take the car in without a co-pilot, but that I have a strong preference not to do so. And this extends strongly (originated with) purely social functions. 

And thus we close Part One of N having introduced the question in some manner of fullness.

Originally posted on adric.vox.com