kjpepper | I need to get out more

Tenna: You know what you need?
Devi: [thinking] Don't say it.
Tenna: You need to get out more.
Devi: AAAKK!! Jeezus Ten. Do you have any idea how frustratingly difficult it is to not know what your advice will be!?
Tenna: That's the most so-untrue-iest thing I've ever heard. I am as unpredictable as the nervous park squirrel!! I just think you could do with some actual living outside of your damn hive!
Devi: My God, woman! I'm not kidding, that really is your only bit of advice for everything! I don't think it even matters what the problem is. That's your answer to all things... problemy! "My ass has become a giant crab! and it's pinching my ass!" "You need to get out more!" "I'm agoraphobic. Why are you in my house?" "You need to get out more!" "The fucking company used me!" "You need to get out more!" "My tartar buildup has gone to my brain! My BRAIN!" "You need to get out more!"
Tenna: THAT'S BULLSHIT! And Why the fuck am I wearing a bear suit?

--Jhonen Vasquez, I Feel Sick, Vol 1

Seriously. I do need to get out more. There's something about being holed up in this house for days on end that seriously works on me. I wonder if I would have even left once all break if I hadn't had lab shifts to do. What is it about stress that causes me to roost up and hide from the world? It makes no sense, especially since once I do get outside I'm always glad I did.

Like today, hopping on my bike to head to the lab, headphones on cause I wasn't biking on the road, just through campus, something about the outside air and the brisk wind lifting my spirits more than anything in the house could. Old habits die hard I guess, and I often forget that I have the option of actually going out to play in the sunshine rather than watching it surreptitiously though the windows like I did for years growing up.

I'm starting to notice, as more time lapses between the present and my last conversation with my mother, how disturbingly like her I am. I'm starting to notice that we have many of the same coping mechanisms for things, and even the minor agoraphobia that causes us to stay inside for days on end. Lordy. Help me not become that miserable woman in thirty or so years.