It's funny the things that can cause sudden significant reflection.
I am beginning to think that I am a mutant.
I am a single (okay, divorced, but FOURTEEN years ago!), 35 yr. old, conservative-minded, female with no kids.
In the day to day, it doesn't seem strange to me, really.
I work with a bunch of men and men don't do as much running around talking about family and kids as women do, I don't think.
But, today, one of my dearest friends whom I've known for around 22 years had a BBQ.  She told me a couple of months ago that she knew a man she wanted me to meet and that she and her hubby would be having a BBQ this summer and she thought that would be an easy way to get us in the same place together.  Now, I'm not really looking, but I guess some corner of my soul still holds out hope for a soul mate, so I was open.  Of course, as I expected, he didn't show up.  But that wasn't the real issue.  The real issue is that I was the ONLY single person there, much less the only person with no kids there.  I'm an introvert anyway, so that was extremely uncomfortable for me.  I left after about 30 mins. of debating whether I wanted to go strike up a conversation with someone whose attention would be constantly taken by one of the apparently 700 little tykes spreading energetic joy around the house.
Kids are ... cute, but uh . . . in small doses.  I love this particular friend's daughter, but she is a little angel and she is one of my very best friend's daughters!  Most children are undisciplined, ill-mannered, demanding, and loud, in my experience.  Whatever happened to the old adage "children should be seen and not heard?"  Oh well, I must remember that I have no idea what life with kids is like and there is nothing any more wrong with wanting that life than with me NOT wanting that life.
So, I scooted out of there and, unfortunately, I was a little high-strung after spending the past week in the same room with my most recent ex, for a training class, and still being friendly with him and being the one who, ultimately, was rejected . . . I was a little raw.  So, I got "tremble lip" and drove to the animal shelter.
No, I didn't bring home a new friend.  And BTW, animal shelters get me SO MAD at people.  For ONE, shelters right now are holding approximately 70% pit bull mixes.  STOP BREEDING PIT BULLS YOU MORONS!!  HOLY CRAP!  And then the other animals there . . . stupid people are too ignorant to train their pets and somehow it's the animals fault if they misbehave?  And so they drop them off at the shelter because they're too cowardly to put the animal down themselves even though that is, factually speaking, what is most likely to happen to them.
Now, I have no desire to be a hoarder.  I like for my home to smell pleasant, not like animals.  I have ONE cat.  He needs a friend.  If I had all of the animals I wanted, I'd probably have 2 horses, 2 cats, and 2 dogs.  That's it.  But everytime I go in the shelter, to volunteer or to look for a friend, there are several animals I'd love to give a home to.
Anyway, the shelter was depressing because I so badly want a dog but now is just still not the time (roommate doesn't like dogs, I have no yard, I can't afford costly vet bills ...).  And, back to kids, I sure wish people would put half as much thought into having kids as I do into getting a dog . . .
So, here I am, searching the internet for other SINKs and finding that I am aka an "OINK," (thanks a lot).
I'm not a mutant.  I just happen to want a different kind of life, but it sure would be nice to find a friend or two like me, who isn't a rabid feminist, who isn't a rabid liberal, who isn't rabid about anything, really.
Well, I give up for now.  I'll escape into some episodes of "Supernatural."