Holiday families

Last time I was single, I remember how the little summer holidays like Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day were sometimes lonely. My friends would spend the day with their families or with their significant other on the lake or a weekend away. I remember spending a few of those holidays doing my own thing.

Being alone was okay, but lonely. This time around, I've learned a valuable lesson. I've realized how important it is to know yourself. If you thrive on being social, live in an area or get involved with groups with people like yourself where you can be with others. If the social thing isn't that important, then no worries.

This year, I had an entire neighborhood family to enjoy the holiday weekend with. And we did. My older sister's young adult-aged daughters spent Independence Day eve afternoon and evening with us too. It was a rare and rewarding day together. They said they had fun. And the older of the two, who's about to venture out on her own, said she wanted to live in an area that was so close knit and fun. We had lunch then hung out at the pool for the afternoon. By evening, we moved to a different pool to the BBQ my friends were hosting - the one some of the girls and me made more than 700 jello shots for. Wow. Is one ever too old for jello shots? Then we moved again to my parking garage roof to watch an amazing fireworks show. Then we capped off the evening at the pub. My nieces were knackered and called it a night before I did.

We did a partial repeat of the evening on the 4th at a different location on a rooftop where we could see about 30 fireworks shows going on in all directions. Explosions in 3D with my neighborhood family.

I've learned I thrive on social interaction. It energizes me. But sometimes I have to retreat into my little loft to recharge (and work too). That's what I did yesterday and much of today.

Now it's time to play again.

Love to the single girls,
Addison