I think this is because I can be very social, have lots of friends, a confident nature and I'm not the least bit shy or timid. But being around a lot of people often exhausts me. I have to have lots of time alone to recharge my batteries and if given the choice, I prefer my solitude to socializing. Even when we have family down for the holidays or birthdays, I have to find time to sneak off to be alone in my office for a while each day or I become very agitated.

I believe that this describes me as well.

If my wife and I go to a gathering, she'll still be going strong after 7 or 8 hours and reluctant to leave, whereas I'll be totally burned out after 90 minutes, tops.

But I have a small group of very close friends, and I can hang out with them more or less indefinitely.

People regard me as somewhat eccentric when I go out. I am an activist. But I prefer to be alone at home. I live in the country, too, and I would be uncomfortable with close neighbors.

I felt your post was pretty descriptive of myself, too. I can function reasonably well in social or business atmospheres, but given the choice, I'd be sitting in my backyard with my fur kids.

I think many of us have ESP of sorts. When we walk into a room full of people, all of the emotion, the drama, the personas just come at you all at once, and it can overload the senses. At least that's the way I feel. I hate being in a crowded store (like my Costco) because there are just too many people! I feel like I'm bouncing off bodies, and my senses are going bonkers.

It's worked very well for me in my life.

I could never run for office as the very idea of having to go around knocking on doors and introducing myself to thousands of strangers is my idea of torture and fills me with dread.

My campaign work is confined to writing postcards of entering data from walk sheets on VoteBuilder.

Extroverts are still yapping about fire.