Part of the problem is that a lot of things on my mind are technical so I post them over on my other blog. I'm not even sure why I make the distinction, though what I post over there is generally sans four letter words (which I fucking use liberally here ;)).
Stephanie thought that working at home was making me kind of introverted, which I can kind of agree with. As she so eloquently put it regarding the Jeff she first met about ten years ago, "You're Jeff Jones! You're on the radio! You write for the newspaper!" I went out to Lucy's (later BW-3) every chance I could and generally tried to avoid being alone.
Times sure have changed. My friends are so spread out now. I don't even remember the last time I spoke to my best man (where ever he is in Hollyweird now). Among my other close friends, one lives in Sandusky now, another on the far east side and yet another in Canton. My cousin and his wife live in the corn fields south. None of the bastards live close to me.
Not working in broadcast hell has certainly allowed me to do my own thing. Going the route of the self-employed is even better. It has however caused my social life to take a hit. I mean, outside of Steph, my biggest real-world interaction with people lately has been with the cute girl at Chipotle.
One of the biggest changes in the last decade has been the proliferation of the Internet into the mainstream. Back then in college we used e-mail to keep in touch with friends at other schools, and the Web didn't yet exist (not in the way we know it, anyway). Now, I look at my buddy list and at any given time, a dozen of my former volleyball kids are connected. Those far-off friends, some of them, are frequently there, and we keep in touch even if we don't see each other much. I guess in that context we still talk, but it's different. It's now almost possible to be a social retard and social butterfly at the same time.
To add to the weirdness, our friends are all married, many have kids and mortgages... weird. I guess now that I'm 30-something I should just be used to that, but it's still weird.
Maybe we need to have more than one great party per year...
And yes, the internet made a huge difference in Gordon's socialization. He (and most of his friends) would spend more time on-line, or playing on-line games with each other, never having to leave the comfort of their own basements. That was and still is completely foreign to me as I'd rather be outside or out having face to face with friends, even those friends I met on the internet.
Of course now that Ian is older, we do a lot more. Even Gordon's gaming night has become an every other weekend poker game that allows me and his best friend's wife to participate. The kids have all grown up and we parents have more free time again.