Finally, I am able to return here. Josiethegirl, I am glad you have such good intimate friends. How I feel and what I think are hard for me to explain. Sometimes it seems a friend will have an annoyed, worried or worn out look on their face, when I'm with them. I have talked too much over the phone, but it is hard to tell if they don't say anything about it. Once, a like a son friend, told my husband I was too boastful about a big fish I caught.

I have started to ask friends to let me know when I get to be too much. In-laws are more vocal, to me, about my eccentricities.

It is all together too burdensome for me. I don't want to think some much about it. I think I need to reign myself in and not have communication and interaction with too many people. With the holidays coming, family demands can become overwhelming too. After being reclusive for over 5yrs, I am not sure I am ready to travel and see everyone.

Any thoughts or ideas on how I can handle all this would be appreciated. Dealing with my husband's health issues and my own, long neglected and new health problems is stressful enough. Then there are the life dramas of car and home repairs and appliance break downs. Oh, don't forget the adult step kids and grand, and their money, love and job dramas.

Calgon take me away.