Cutting Back

When I was growing up, I always wanted to be one of the ‘popular’ kids. They had a ton of friends. They always got invited to parties. Everyone liked them. (For the most part.) I wanted to be like that. I always wanted to have boatloads of friends with lots of things to do with all of them. And it would be Super Fun Time. 24/7. That’s what I thought it would be like to be popular.

Recently, I have discovered what it is like to live the lifestyle of a social butterfly. It is not what I expected it to be. Don’t get me wrong. I like having a lot of people that I consider to be my friends. I like being asked out to do things with everyone. I like that I have people in my life that think enough of me to want to spend their time in my company.

But I didn’t grow up as a social person. I had like… two friends. And we all hung out together. So it wasn’t complicated. Now I’m finding myself moving in about eight different social circles, and I don’t know how to manage my time anymore. In the past three months, I can probably count on two hands the number of nights I have spent at home and cooked dinner. At least five nights a week, I am out. Sometimes six.

I’m balancing my regular work schedule of five to six days a week, the Weekly Knit Night with my girlfriends, the bi-weekly Stitch N’ Bitch group with the Old Ladies, the bi-weekly Pathfinder game that Ron runs, Dungeons and Dragons that Sam runs, two PartyLite meetings/workshops a month (in the ass ends of the state), going to the gyms (plural because I am going to the gym with Jess two to three times a week, and now I’m going to the gym with Sam two to three times a week, one in Bristol, one in Waterbury), seeing my family, seeing Sam’s family, and sleeping.

And I don’t even have PartyLite bookings right now. AND I have another group of old ladies (that I know from work) that have been asking me to come to THEIR knitting group.

Something’s gotta give somewhere. I can’t stand that I’m never at home. I feel like I’m being stretched in too many directions. And somewhere, something is going to break. And it isn’t going to be good. I feel myself fraying around the edges. I can’t even keep my days straight right now.

Sleeping should be higher up on my priority list. (Not that I listed anything in any order of priority.)

I think after I get back from Colorado, I’m going to rethink my social calendar. I’m going to quit Pathfinder altogether. I’m going to cut back on the gym and try to get Sam to come to the Bristol gym with me and Jess on a few days that Jess and I go. DnD isn’t really a problem, because we meet maybe once a month already. There’s nothing left on that to cut back on. The Stitch N’ Bitch with the old ladies I’ll probably only go to once a month. Weekly Knit Night with my girls isn’t going to change. THAT needs to happen every week. If nothing else, that happens.

And I think I’m going to just….not do anything social the first week back from Colorado. I need a break from people. I love my people. But I need some me time. And I need a few days to just sleep and not do anything. And I need to learn to say no to people every once in a while. I can’t be in all places at once. And although I know this is a fact, it is hard to remember when people ask me to do things. I want to do ALL THE THINGS. Until I’m doing all the things. And then I don’t want to do ANY of the things.

No one told me that having a social life was difficult. After I figure out PartyLite and what I’m going to be doing with that, I’ll try to figure out just how much I can do with the time that I have.

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In other news: I reached my goal of $1,000 for my St. Baldrick’s Fundraiser, and I’m looking forward to shaving my head! Sam fell behind somewhere in the fundraising race, but I’m confident that he will also reach his $1,000 goal. He’s at $697 as of today. I don’t think he’ll have too much difficulty raising $303 in the 18 days we have left. My mom gave me $50 for the fundraiser. I told her that I was going to put it towards Sam’s fund. And I’m also advertising him more on Facebook and getting more people aware that he’s doing this with me.

My younger brother, Christopher, is graduating from RPI Memorial Day Weekend! I’m so excited!

AND even without the bookings and the lack of parties, I’m almost at my $1,400 goal for my first month of PartyLite. I’m only about $200 away from reaching goal. I don’t know how or when that happened, but apparently, that is going better than what I had originally thought? So I’m hoping to get a few more sales in before the end of the month. Michelle’s mom is apparently buying half the catalog. That might take care of that.

So yeah. That’s my busy life as of right now. Doesn’t seem like it should be all that busy. But I can’t find the time to anything anymore. Knitting included. Hopefully that will change soon.

ALW