Being a party of one and loving it, sort of

If I ever meet you on the street, look you straight in the eye and tell you I don't mind eating dinner alone most nights or having deep conversations with the cat while she sits asleep on the windowsill, I would be lying.

Who am I kidding anyways?

It's not like the empty spot at the table is going to fill itself and the cat will just be eagerly waiting for me to come home so she can hold me tight on the weeknights after a long day at work.

And no this isn't my way of trying to solicit a date using a couple lines in today's paper for my share of the lifestyles page.

Nope. Not at all.

It's more about poking fun at myself, a 23-year-old single gal living in Moses Lake who on occasion eats peanut butter on saltines for dinner, followed by a pint of Haagen-Dazs White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Ice cream and then calls it a night at 8 p.m.

I like to think of these habits as a friendly reminder of my singlehood, something to chuckle about in a season of my life that I should enjoy while I have it.

So what is so funny about being single, you might ask?

I think for me it is the irony of having this freedom, but trying to hide it at the same time because for some reason it's as if being single for too long is a bad thing anymore.

A prime example is when I went into the grocery store the other day, placed my one grapefruit, measly pork chop and half gallon of milk on the conveyor belt only to hear these words from the cashier: "Oh, eating for one I see."

All I could do was laugh all the way out to the car.

Perhaps I should have splurged and paid for $60 worth of groceries, and went on about how I was in a hurry to get home so I could feed the kids and say hi to hubby so as not to give myself away.

Another time goes back to high school prom when I didn't have a date, but wanted to go anyway.

"What do you mean you don't have a date,?" one friend remarked.

"Isn't that going to suck going to prom by yourself?" another questioned.

At the time I was a little disheartened, but looking back I had a great time having a girls night out for prom.

There were no expectations, and no pressure to go to "fourth base," as they call it.

And, really, when you think about it, singles are a unique group unto themselves.

We have our own night clubs, community groups and social hour at church.

What more could we ask for?

We could ask not to be so hard on ourselves for being single.

It really is OK to be a party of one.

Aimee Hornberger is the happily single health and education reporter for the Columbia Basin Herald.