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Introverts unite!
A nifty article I came across today on Caring For Your Introvert neatly expresses a concept that I've always had trouble getting across to people -- that social interaction drains me. I sometimes have a hard time figuring out how to explain, without sounding like a total weenie, that it's not that I don't enjoy spending time with my friends; it's just that I need a lot of charging/recharging in order to prepare for or recover from an evening of social interaction, or even a phone conversation. It's fun, but it's also a bit like running a marathon uphill, especially in a social setting with a lot of people. I've learned by experience that about 2-3 hours of personal interaction (give or take a bit) or somewhere between a half-hour to an hour on the phone is about as long as I can happily enjoy before I reach the point where weariness starts to overwhelm the fun I'm having. So ... if I leave a party early, or if I politely start trying to end a conversation on the phone after an hour or so, it's not because I don't like you, it's just because I'm getting very tired and I need to stop for a rest.
Re: I'm essaying again - sorry!
... oh, and I really hear you on this, too! This is the only real trouble with me and my husband being on the same page where these things are concerned -- it's *really* easy for us to turn into couch-lumps together. Just as an example, I took two trips last summer, one to Newfoundland with my husband, and one to the Eastern U.S. and Quebec with my sister. My sister is a high-energy, extrovert type, and we packed in an incredible amount of DOING into our vacation -- we were exhausted by the end, but we saw and did a lot of things. Whereas the Newfoundland trip was more like downtime; we spent a lot of time hiking along the coast in a leisurely sort of way, or relaxing in the hotel room. And while I really enjoyed the mindless time off, looking back on it now, I wish I'd taken more advantage of the opportunity to see the island, since I may not be back.