# Live Alone A Long Time? Are You, Uh, Eccentric? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 27, 2004, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-alone-a-long-time-are-you-uh-eccentric/236710 "2004-03-27T08:07:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-alone-a-long-time-are-you-uh-eccentric/236710/21 "2004-03-28T23:09:04Z")
My sweetie lived alone for quite some time before he and I got together, and although he’s not especially eccentric, he’s got some truly awful habits. He eats soup for dinner in front of the computer. Check that. He eats soup for dinner, _cold and straight out of the can_, in front of the computer. Not to mention vienna sausages, spam, and pork and beans. On the rare occasions when he actually heats his dinner, he lets his cat (yes, he owns a cat) eat off of his plate. He washes his hair with soap. Soap. Dove soap. And, several other things which have escaped my mind at the moment, but left me blinking in astonishment when he admitted to them. ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-alone-a-long-time-are-you-uh-eccentric/236710/22 "2004-03-29T01:22:49Z")
It’s COAST soap… not Dove… just sayin… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-alone-a-long-time-are-you-uh-eccentric/236710/23 "2004-03-29T01:49:34Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I’ve been living alone for 20 years, and I’m reasonably sane. I have a hammock in my bedroom, and I sleep in it every night (strangely, my back is happier that way). I’ve always wanted a hammock indoors, since I saw someone with one in their bedroom- I was in grade school at the time, and wasn’t living alone. Plus, the landlord and my economic situation at the time prevented me following through with my plan. I don’t eat at regular times, just when I get hungry. If I go out to eat, that’s different. I usually eat at regular times then. In the winter, I like to keep my beverages on the attic steps, but that’s just because it’s cold in the attic, and it’s closer to my computer/tv room. The place is pretty cluttered, but that’s just genetics. (Blaming the 'rents.) ---
**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-alone-a-long-time-are-you-uh-eccentric/236710/24 "2004-03-29T01:51:46Z")
I’ve been living alone for about 12 years. Left that out. ---
**Author:** ![AzRaek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/azraek/32/16739_2.png) [@AzRaek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AzRaek)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-alone-a-long-time-are-you-uh-eccentric/236710/25 "2004-03-29T03:45:14Z")
I’ 33, I’e never lived alone. Went from mom’s to Ed’s, back to mom’s then with Ryan. Im back at mom’s now for a couple months. I can’t wait to live alone. The only thing helping me through my divorce is the thought of having my own place. I can decorate! and walk around naked! oh wait ryan and I did that…excuse me while I get some more wine… ---
**Author:** ![Kaotic\_Newtral](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@Kaotic\_Newtral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaotic_Newtral)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-alone-a-long-time-are-you-uh-eccentric/236710/26 "2004-03-29T03:54:45Z")
I’ve been living on my own for the last 3 years. When it comes down to it, I’d been living alone my whole life. Through marriage, engagement etc…I’d always done things the same it seems. I need a ton of space I’ve found, and it’s cost me dearly at times. Someday(fingers crossed), I’ll find a happy medium. To me, living in a mountain cabin would be a dream. I love people, but loathe ‘people’ in groups. I need to be able to get away, be alone for a bit and update the statistics in my head I guess. I’ll meet that woman someday! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sinshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Sinshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinshine)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-alone-a-long-time-are-you-uh-eccentric/236710/27 "2004-03-29T06:04:33Z")
When I was a little girl, I used to plan my wedding. Most little girls do this, or so I’m told. What made me unusual in the eyes of my neighbourhood, was that I stoutly refused to marry anybody. There I was, in my “pretend” wedding dress and veil, and if I was asked who I was marrying, I always said, **me!** Fast forward through awkward adolescence, through two broken engagements and one truly horrific live-in, to present day. I live alone, have done for the best part of the past five years. I now have a cat, a few eccentric habits, an all-consuming job, and more books than shelves. When asked recently why I hadn’t married (by a hottie who was eligible until asking that very dumb question) my response was that I walk to my own drummer, and most people can’t find the beat. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-alone-a-long-time-are-you-uh-eccentric/236710/28 "2004-03-29T14:12:46Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Don’t get me wrong…I lived alone after college for about 10 years, and I know how easy it is to get “set in your ways”. > > But we have a woman at work who has lived alone for probably the last 30 years and she is, to put it mildly, nuts. She talks aloud to no one in particular and when she screams something like, “What is going on?” “Why is this doing this?” and other such comments, nobody even looks up anymore. Her classic line of late, that had the whole office, including herself, laughing is when her boss gave her an assignment and she forgot what he asked her to do, so she screamed, “Can anyone remember what I was screaming about before I was screaming about that other thing?” > > Then there is Cat Woman. She has pictures of her cats all around her cubicle, she packs her lunch in a Garfield lunch box, and stays in her apartment every weekend with her cat and only goes out to go to the grocery store. I overheard her say that she hasn’t had a date in five years and last week a neighbor guy asked her out. Mind you, this is a very, very attractive woman and maybe 42 years old. She said the neighbor guy was good looking, but she said no. The reason? She was at work all week and her cats would miss her if she left them during the weekend. > > So my question is…does long-term living alone make someone eccentric, or are these people an exception? They’re not crazy because they live alone; they live alone because they’re crazy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-alone-a-long-time-are-you-uh-eccentric/236710.md?page=1)