Work, Sleep, Work, Sleep, Work...

Without the Absentminded Mastermind, I have no social life. There is absolutely no one else in the world, not even Patient and Tolerant, who really understands a lot of the things I find funny or at least mildly amusing. A hundred times a day I catch myself thinking, "If only Absentminded were still here, we could--" But he's not here, he went back to the safety of volcano-land. And he has a bunch of new friends, several of whom remind him of me.

No one reminds me of him.

I've been singing "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" in the car and in the shower and in the kitchen, and while I'm walking by the way and when I'm lying down and yada yada.

Patient and Tolerant is great, but his interests are so different. He spends most of his free time playing EverCrack with his friends, all of whom are gamers, and I know he doesn't appreciate the funny of dressing in strange clothes and going out; or the fun of going antiqueing; or the thrill of looking for scary people while blasting Billy Bragg inside the safety of a quiet car.

I keep reminding myself, no one can have everything. I am here because I can have a real career here, enough money to support Patient and Tolerant and myself, and because Patient and Tolerant's mom is here and she can help with details like watching the kids while I work, and for a thousand other rational reasons. But I wish Absentminded Mastermind had stuck it out, the way we planned, so I wasn't so completely...without friends who are just, you know, friends and not co-workers or in-laws-to-be.