Back in the saddle again...

I have returned!  It was a fine little weekend sabbatical in the Upper Midwest, details of which I will pass along in subsequent posts, as soon as I can round up some photos.  It’s always nice to get away for even just a couple days to recharge one’s mental batteries, if nothing else.  Wish I could have stayed a few more days too, but you know how that goes.  In the meantime, it also gave me a little time to think about stuff…

Almost every time I go on a road trip, I’m asked by my co-workers, “Why do you always go by yourself?”  Well, it’s pretty simple—I’m 42, and I don’t have a co-pilot!  For me, it’s like the Gregg Allman song goes, there’s “nobody left to run with anymore,” and I don’t have much of a choice but to fly solo.  True, I’ve always been kind of a loner, and most of my road trips have been solo acts anyway—I love the freedom of going wherever I want, whenever I want without having to argue about it and futz around with other people‘s agendas.  It’s great in that regard, but it sucks in other ways, especially not having anyone to share the fun with, but I really don’t have a choice now because all my close friends are married and/or in the family way.

It never ceases to amaze me how the vaunted institution of marriage has quietly, yet stealthily managed to surgically remove ALL of my close friends from my social life.  I don’t intend this to be a pity-party here, but I can’t even recall the last time I attended even a fucking ballgame with anyone other than my mother.  Don’t get me wrong—I love Mom to death, but I find it rather pitiful that she’s the only person in my immediate circle who’s readily available to ring me up and say, “Hey Brian, how ‘bout we get out and do something?”  My best friend and I haven’t done squat together since he got married six years ago—he’s always busy with his family and his church, so he’s pretty much tied up for the next 15 years until the youngest child graduates high school (maybe even a couple years longer).  I have another close friend who’s a truck driver, so the last thing he wants to do is a road trip, and the same goes for another friend who travels a lot on business.  Of my two closest female friends, one lives two time zones away, and the other currently lives halfway around the world.  Other friends have gone AWOL altogether, and all of the above are married anyway, so I’m pretty well screwed for having anyone to tag along with me anywhere.

Most of my friends also don’t share my avid interest in ballparks and hockey arenas either, and I’m not about to put my life on hold waiting for someone to become available to explore sporting venues with me, thus I go it alone.  Hell, I’m lucky if I can even get a personal e-mail from certain people anymore, even though they hear from me plenty, and I find that not only frustrating, but disheartening too.  I try not to take it personally, but I can’t help but wonder sometimes.  I realize I can be a bit opinionated at times, but I’m not exactly an axe-murderer (I can honestly say I've never murdered an axe in my life) or a child pornographer (believe me, the less I have to do with children, the better), yet I often feel like I’ve been kicked to the curb anyway.  Whenever I broach that subject with my friends, they tell me I should get out and make new friends.  Great idea, in theory, but not very easy in practice—and besides, these things take time to develop.  Meantime, why can’t I expect a little acknowledgement from my existing friends?  How long does it take to write a brief e-mail, anyway?  About all I get is the token “Let’s get together and do something sometime…” but the phone never rings.  I even feel a little resentment from certain friends because I’ve remained single all this time.  Sorry if I’m the last domino to fall, and call me a heretic all you want, but I’m proud to say that I’ve never knuckled under to peer pressure to get married and/or have kids.  I’m not cut out for that kind of life anyway…

Sorry to get off on a rant here, but I needed to get that out of my system.  Maybe soon I’ll find a suitable co-pilot (preferably of the opposite sex) to travel the world with.  In the meantime, I’d gladly take in a Kansas Shitty Royals game with someone besides Mom…