Solitary confinement.

Tonight is the first night I have had no commitments since December 15th. I have no unpaid job offsites to plan for, I have no out of town guests to entertain, and I have no deathly illness.

Tonight I don't have to figure out how to keep someone occupied for four more hours while they wait for their medication to settle so that they can eat a snack before they go to bed (hello, parents) and I don't have to listen to a one-sided cell phone conversation (hello, best friend*).

Tonight I can just do what I want. Which involves hanging out with the cat while I watch someone chastise an Antiques Roadshow contestant for buying a crappy rendition of a Civil War sword while I wait for the first part of a very interesting PBS documentary on country boy living.

YAY SOLITUDE.

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* I love my best friend. I do. She's my oldest and dearest friend and she knows everything about me. She gets all my quirks. And most importantly, she knows exactly how I like to spend a day shopping (going to every high-end store to seek out the sale racks, finding great deals and exact sizes, getting annoyed with the multitude of stupid shoppers who - like with the DMV, lose 50 IQ points when they enter a store - and gives me THE EYE to commiserate, acknowledging midway that our blood sugar levels have dropped and we really need to eat some pizza... and vice versa).

But I don't see the need for her to recount the conversation about every single action that we did each day with her significant other (which I overheard and obviously get), especially since I am so anti-all-that-crap-right-now. And I don't see the need for her to relay every minute of her conversation (which I overheard and obviously understand the gist of - blahblahblah twocentstampincrease blahblahblah Medicarepleasesignup blahblahblah youhadtofirepeople blahblahblah birthdaycakeforGrandchild blahblahblah) even after I say "yeah I know what you and your mom talked about."

I think that this is what normal people do - talk to their boyfriend and family on a regular basis. And therefore I think that I have officially become hermit material. This bothers me immensely... But at least I've got a PBS show to distract me!