Quiet

My in-laws are gone.  My daughter, her fiance, and her friend are gone.  My husband has gone to bed.  It's 10:15 PM and except for the sound of the dryer my house is quiet.  Finally.

Don't get me wrong.  I enjoyed seeing everyone.  The bridal shower was fun.  Some friends came over and hung out on the back deck last night.  It was a people filled, social, weekend.  But I'm glad it's over.

It seems the older I get the more I crave quiet.  I enjoy socializing.  I like people and I like to be around them.  Entertaining is fun, when it's my choice.  Going out and doing things is fun.  But I need the quiet time to balance it all out.

I think it actually has more to do with sound than people.  I have the sound on my computer and phone (except for a call or text) turned off.  I play a few games on my phone or online, but I turn the sound off on those because I can't stand the dings and dongs and repetitive carnival songs that play over and over.

It's not all sound all the time though.  I listen to audio books in the car, and I enjoy watching a couple of hours of TV with my husband each night.  I listen to music sometimes and I've recently started listening to podcasts while I spin.  So it's not sound in general that bothers me, it's more the quantity of sound.

I sometimes reach a point in the day, usually in the evening, where I truly feel like I might scream if I have to hear another sound.  I've even tried Googling to see if there's some medical name for it.  Yes, seriously.  But there doesn't seem to be a name for it that I can find.  It's as if I have a physical capacity for only so much sound every day and then I can't take anymore.

I've always like a little quiet time to myself, so maybe I'm getting old.  Who knows, maybe I'm just getting weirder.