Like many of us hot-blooded Americans, summer brings out the hot weather and the need to escape the hum-drum existence that had become your daily life.

Couples with kids suddenly find their routine jilted into reality when they realize that they, not scholastic institutions, must now entertain their spawn.

Athletes (and those that like to watch athletes) hit the Lincoln Park trail for some much needed Vitamin D shot of the sun. The frat boys of Wrigleyville break out their cornhole and Buds and make childish remarks to the passerby Cubby Bear Chicks in their jerseys and miniskirts as they strut off to the bleachers of Wrigley Field.

And in an effort to conform to societal norms (because as much as we say we are different, we really just want to be accepted, right?) I have decided that my social life needs improvement, and contrary to popular belief, as much as I love sitting in my condo with Ollie reading a book listening to swing music, solitude can only get you so far. Sure, you become so comfortable with yourself that if anyone remotely looks at the TV remote they are doomed (that is assuming people are invited to my studio…where would they sit?)…and yes, I can now successfully give myself a manicure AND pedicure while watching reruns of House, at 3 in the morning, no less…and no one is around to say that’s weird.

So I’m sitting here and thinking, I am no longer fighting for that job because I currently have the one I wanted…so I don’t have to spend all my free time thinking about how to get ahead (although, let’s face it, we are a capitalist society, and we all must think ahead)…and my social life is kinda, well, stale (let’s just say I have more friends on Facebook than I do in real life..but who doesn’t?) So I started thinking, I need to join things…so first I join things where other people I know are involved, because frankly, to get me out of this rut, I need familia motivationa… So recently, not only did I join the Blue Ribbon Glee Club…but I also signed up for a swimming league with a friend of mine, not having swum in like, oh, a decade? Hey, I needed to venture outside of my comfort-zone and I’d rather be clueless in Punkville and too busy swallowing water to talk to anyone than wallowing in my own thoughts of how bored I’ve become…swimming starts tuesday, so if there is no post, I’ve drowned…

So I’ve joined these things and today, I was so inspired by my newfound need for society that I drove to the Home Depot in Lakeview!!!! I know, right? Well, here’s the deal…I know everything that is north of me…work, the Target on Peterson, the Walgreens on Wilson…these are familiar to me. So before today, I would have gone 5 miles out of my way to go to the Home Depot that I knew near my work…but NO! I decided to live a little and venture down Halsted to the Home Depot in the heart of Lakeview. Not only did I find it, but I almost hit a car in front of me looking at all these places I didn’t know existed off of Halsted! Granted, the Home Depot was small and had nothing that I was looking for, but still…the effort there was key.

So my next “become one with society” thing is to do something different everyday…be it taking a different way home from work, walking a different route with Ollie, or just eating at the other side of my table…its all about changing it up to avoid the routine rut.

Even if I have nothing to say, I am still going to post my “the world from a different view” commentary. So stay tuned.

So in my continuing (ok, really, just started) efforts to be a well-rounded citizen of the earth (ok, really, just be more social than I currently am), I strayed off the beaten path and joined a club. A glee club. But not just any glee club. The Blue Ribbon Glee Club. Why different, you ask? Well, they sing punk songs. And drink beer. AT THE SAME TIME! It was my first “official” out-of-comfort-zone thing I have done all year (besides chop my hair…with a new stylist!), but this one was free and just required me to show up…and I said, what the hell?! I’ll try it and see. So let’s just say I’ll be back next week.

But it wasn’t even so much going the THE GLEE practice, as it was doing something different everyday. The practice was on Ashland and Adams, like, SOUTH LOOP! and I was driving halfway down there, and suddenly became aware of where Lincoln Park was…Where Lakeview ended…where the West Loop began…and it was just kinda like, hm…look at all these places. I have been so preoccupied with wanting to move out of the city, that I realize I have yet to explore the city. Granted it helps when you have someone to do it with, and I would not like to end up under the el because I turned somewhere wrong…but I digress. I suddenly realized how lucky I was to have a car that can take me to places I’ve never been…be it Ashland and Adams, or just downtown….it was nice to get out of my comfort zone…because I think we all become too comfortable with life…like me, I have a condo in the city, a dog who is relatively trained, a car, a job, and nothing about any of these things is new…and I became stale. Day in, day out, just doing what needed to be done, then coming home and watching TV (although I can justify that because I work in TV)…but I just realized that life is not going to come to you, you have to come to it. As cliche as it is, once you start doing something new, no matter what it is, every time you try something new, it becomes easier. The nerves go away. The awkwardness dissolves, until you are so comfortable with new surroundings that being a stale blob is unacceptable. And now that I have taken that first step to “new discoveries” I find that I am a little less stale and a little more substance than yesterday. Now if I could only use this new found knowledge to find a date…

It comes down to this: Stale blob or interesting human being? Like my mother always said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Which I read as, “I can always quit”. You can always quit experiences, but you should never want to quit life.

Seize the day and all that jazz…and on that note, to bed I go.