Madison Is a Little Too Friendly

I'm coming up on my one year anniversary, Madison. It's bittersweet. And it happened so fast.

Now, obviously I enjoy the company of people. But, I have always valued a little bit of alone time. Perhaps that is why I like living alone so much. And I have mentioned that you are not alone much in Madison. Especially if you are outgoing and will talk to anyone.

And so, I am actually starting to get slightly irritated by the amount of friendliness that is going on. You know, some days, I just want to have an hour to myself. Owning a dog, this seems to be difficult. If I have an hour at home, it gets interrupted a lot. Which is totally fine. Except like this past weekend, when I spent all weekend with people and decided I just really wanted to have the night to myself on Sunday. I was left alone around 5:00. (Hence, the last blog post). My dog hadn't been out since the morning. My friend texted me to come to the terrace. As much as I wanted to be there and see my friends, I turned the invitation down. I took the dog out. I made it about three blocks when I was approached by someone who recognized me and we walked and talked for about 20 minutes. I am sort of at a point where I feel that if I need some "me" time, I have to hibernate in my apartment.

The next day, I take a walk after work. I tell myself, "Just look down!" The first group of homeless hippies look at me and one shouts, "Hey there's my ex wife. Nice leash!" As I take my own advice and look down, a woman comes by and says "beautiful dog!" I didn't even make eye contact with her. It's like everyone has to talk to each other around here. Which is fine and dandy, except when you aren't in the mood.

Then there was the woman by the library last week who asked me, all of the people walking by, to help her put her DVDs in the book drop. And she was scared of my dog. Who wanted to sniff her out. Why me?

If you are looking for a friendly town, this is it. There is no way out of friendly conversation with strangers. Out with friends, we often befriend neighboring tables. We have invited people who we don't know to sit with us. By the end of a night out, you may have a whole new group of friends. I am not trying to criticize. I just think it's sort of funny that even I feel a little annoyed with the niceness.