I am a very shy introvert and I find that it takes me a long time to get close to anyone. I chat and make small talk with people I meet during the day but I don't really share too much. When I was working, I had people I would go to lunch with and they knew me a little better but when I had my kid, I left the work world and then we moved to a new state. Now, I spend time with other people but the activities mostly have to do with my volunteer work I do and while we know each other enough to make small talk, we don't do much together outside of the volunteer work. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the friends I have who really know me are people who have been in my life for a long time. Some of them are family and the rest might as well be. Maybe like a lot of people, I only share my thoughts and interests with people who will appreciate them and keep a lot locked away that might cause someone to think less of me. I feel like there are really very few people who I trust to know all of me. Maybe nobody does and maybe it's like that for everybody.

Perhaps that is why LJ and people I've met here mean as much to me as they do. This is the one place where the fangirl part of me is able to come out. I feel like I could probably share most things about me here and my flist would take it in stride. The other reason I like LJ is that I spend a fair amount of time by myself. I have insomnia a lot and I'm awake at very weird hours. No matter what time I go online, there is this great feeling of not being the only one awake in the whole world. Inevitably someone else is awake and making a post. My flist is a great comfort to me.

For this entry, I'm supposed to list 8 things I like about my friends. I already stuck a couple in the writing above but here is a list of eight things I like about my friends in addition to what is above.



The really good stuff:

1. They've taken the time and had the patience to get to know me and that takes a long while.

2. They are hilarious and talented. The creativity on LJ in particular is fabulous.

3. A lot of them are a generation older than me and that allows me to learn from their life experiences and they have helpful advice.

4. I live a long way from a couple of my oldest friends. We may not see each other for long stretches of time but we can pick up with each other as if we've just seen each other last week.

5. We have different interests so I'm always learning something from them.

6. They've been a huge support in tough times.

7. My friend Sadie, my dog, keeps me company during the day and loves me seemingly without reservation.

8. My LJ friends are really cool folks with some of the same interests as me that I don't have anyone else to talk with about. In my RL world, I don't know anyone who watches the same shows or reads the same books as me. It's great to have other people to commiserate with when things aren't going well and get really excited with when they are.



Thanks for being here and commenting and being generally awesome.