In my red glasses: Solitaire

I love being in huge groups, be it smack dab in the middle of a chaotic tangle of limbs reaching for a piece of bulgogi or soy garlic chicken, or trying to blend among a chorus of on-key and off-key voices accompanied by real and improvised instruments (late into the night, a jam session is bound to have tummy drumming and armpit noises, I kid you not). I am very thankful that I have friends and family who share my love for John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Hanson, Bon Chon chicken, egg-laden brunches, and the list goes on and on. But that list is not endless- after all, every person is unique, and although you and I might share a lot of common interests, inevitably we will find something that we both disagree on. Like how I believe that Twilight ruined vampire lore (you might say that Twilight actually improved upon it), the Backstreet Boys are better than N'Sync (they have an upcoming tour! To which, unfortunately, I wasn't able to purchase a ticket. *sigh*), how Posh Spice is and will always be the #1 Spice Girl, and how I love bluegrass / folk music because I find it more authentic and raw than the severely polished and run-of-the-mill new songs that comprise modern country music. In my case, I have a not-quite-common love for She&Him (the duo of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward), Steve Martin's banjo skills, The National Symphony Orchestra and cherry blossoms. I was able to get free tickets from work to the first three concerts, and for all of them I expected there to at least be one person who would eagerly watch/listen to them with me. Alas, that was not the case, and so I watched them by my lonesome. One can't have it all, and I guess one of the things I can never attain is a friend who shares the same eclectic taste in music as mine. Looking back, I'm glad that I went through with it and braved the throngs of couples, families and groups of friends because I thoroughly enjoyed each and every event that I went to, even if I embarrassed myself in one of them by dozing off for about 5 minutes (hint: it's obvious, so I won't tell! Hahaha). In my defense, I worked overtime and was running on five hours of sleep that day. As for the cherry blossoms, I was able to catch them in full bloom right before a storm passed the day after. It was splendid, and you can tell by how many pictures I took of them. Being solitary is not that bad - you get to enjoy your own company, you have the chance to reflect without any outside influences, plus no one will judge your chopstick skills if you sit facing away from everyone in a Japanese restaurant (not that mine are bad, but I have had a couple of mishaps here and there, mostly due to not paying attention). Even Jesus, at times, had to go away to converse with God alone. In the end, would you rather be there and experience it by yourself, or wallow at home and pity yourself for not finding someone to go with you? If I hadn't chosen to go see the cherry blossoms in DC by myself, I would not have captured these beautiful shots: