Antisocial

[poliphilo]

I get bored so easily. Visitors? Unless they want to discuss Virginia Woolf or Ingmar Bergman they can go to hell. I sit. I squirm. I pick up a book and read the back cover.

My excuses are that I've become crusty with age, that my arthritis won't let me sit still- but the truth is I've always been this way. All that's changed is that now I'll admit to it. And I'm not so eager to be liked.

That's why I love LJ. I can pick the company I keep and the conversations I have. And if I don't feel like talking I can switch screens and play solitaire.

Comments

[morrison-maiden.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way! That's why I love LJ and e-mail too. I hate instant messaging, because if I get bored (I often do) I feel obligated to stay and chat anyway. Email and comments, you can be completely sincere, but just say what you feel like saying and then go about your business...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't like instant messaging either. I like time to think and not to have to give snap answers.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Re: Antisocial

There's nothing more tedious than balancing a plate on your lap in someone's living room and trying to come up with something to say--"What pretty wallpaper! Your piano looks so nice in front of it! And is that the Thompson piano series? Did you take lessons as a child?" And wanting to go home so much, but you can't yet. And then you spill punch on your shirt and the hostess flutters around.

I used to know someone who always had to go to parties with his wife, and he hated it. It was usually at Christmas choir parties when I'd see him, and I got so I admired how he'd handle things--he'd go straight to the bookshelf and examine every book. Occasionally his wife would pull him out into the room, or we'd have charades, but otherwise he'd be reading titles.


On the

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My brother in law's technique is a lot simpler. He just goes to sleep. At our wedding reception- a few years ago now- he went to sleep on the hearth-rug while the party churned on around him.

And I have pictures to prove it!