The Joy of Irony

Ironically, in my last entry about less spammy hours, within seconds of posting it, a spambot posted a big long comment on it about how to improve my love life, or win the lottery, or get an ex back. I can’t remember and I reported and blocked it so I can’t see it now. It discouraged me from OD for about ten seconds. Later an actual live human kindly left a nice note and my faith in OD humanity has again been restored. 🙂

In other news, Hermitism runs in my family. I may have just made up that word, but my uncle was a hermit. No one ever saw him. That was the rumor. I was 12 before I saw him. I had to spend the afternoon at my grandmother’s house because I was helping her out with housework because she was sick and somehow she invited me to stay for dinner. There was a chance I ‘offered’ myself to stay for dinner. lol. I don’t know, it was years ago and all I really remember was peeling potatoes with her and wondering if Uncle Dan would come downstairs for dinner. I could hear him walking around up there but all sources pointed to no that he would NOT be present at dinner. Mom said he would not go downstairs if I was there. Even she hadn’t seen him in years and he was her baby brother! We lived in the country and apparently the world had been tricked into believing that introverts were just underdeveloped extroverts. Apparently back then if you knew one (an introvert/ hermit) you were either lying or lucky.

Well (I broke this up into paragraphs so that people who are not interested in this story can clearly see that it is continuing and can skip to the next paragraph if they choose…although honestly, once I’m onto my hermit speeches, they rarely lead into other topics), to my utter amazement, when dinner was served, I heard his heavy footsteps across the ceiling and then the slow clomping down the stairs. I had no idea what he looked like. Mom had told me that if he did go down to dinner, for me not to talk to him because he wouldn’t like that. I was terrified and excited at this opportunity to get a rare sighting of my uncle. He turned out to be NICE! He smiled! He spoke to me, and I had a great conversation with him that thrilled me to the core. I was honored with his presence and acknowledgement. He told me he played guitar. I found that fascinating. I’d had no idea I would find he was just a normal and very interesting human being. (because I was 12 and had been misguided in my perceptions of what hermits were. I’d imagined caves. I blame it on cartoons.) He liked to read (I did too!) and he was building a tiny house in the woods (I loved that idea and I always wanted to do that too!)

My grandmother was diagnosed with cancer which caused her and my mother to make up and forget their differences. (Grammy didn’t approve of Mom marrying Dad and apparently they hadn’t talked for years). It also caused a gigantic family reunion when I was 13. By then I was a fully-developed introvert and the thought of going to a gigantic family reunion with Mom’s many sisters and brothers, their wives and kids (all of whom were strangers because they’d moved away) made me so unbearably nervous. I did not want to go. Mom pressured me to go because Grammy was sick and wouldn’t live long. I didn’t mind spending time with Grammy. I went back the road every day and helped her (and yes, befriended Uncle Dan and even heard him play his guitar on about my fourth visit) but to attend a gigantic family reunion was more than I could bear and I did not go. Mom said I would feel guilty or regret it if I didn’t go. But I never did. I spent time with Grammy before and after the reunion. My 13-year-old reasoning was that if this was for her sake, I already spent time with her. It was mainly for the benefit of all her children who had grown up and moved away and didn’t see her very often.

So, I know this has been a long ramble with no real point. It was just something that I was thinking about this morning. About Uncle Dan and how said our society was back in those days that didn’t allow people to embrace their introvert nature. Introverts had to be extra strong then. I remember thinking there was something wrong with me until I was about 30 when I realized that I was not weird (well, okay, maybe I am weird but not because I’m an introvert) I was just a perfectly acceptable introvert and it was okay if I didn’t want to attend large events. I was okay. I was normal.

This is why the company I’m building will be more respectful of introverts. If they prefer a private office instead of an open-concept cubicle space, fine. If they prefer to work at home, fine. If they never want to work in office, that’s fine. The key is that the deadlines and goals are met. Period. They can set their own hours, work their own way, and wherever they thrive. I do this now for the apartment buildings I manage. I tell all new tenants, “If there’s a problem, you can call or text the work number. I know some people prefer to text because of social anxiety and that’s fine, I am that way too. So, if you prefer to call, that’s okay, but if you prefer to only text, that is perfectly fine.” 🙂

Okay, I shall attempt to post again before bed. I meant to last night but I had a really bad headache because I had msg from an over-indulgence in Cheetos (my fault) so I went to bed with an ice pack early.

P.S. I unfortunately forgot the actual time of my suspected OD happy hour and posted amid a spam storm. Ugh. Ah well, I’m going to have actually write it somewhere in my planner that the actual OD happy hour (when we can happily post and avoid spam) is after 8:30 p.m. Atlantic time.