Some things I learned this weekend

Okay, so this is actually about relationships, but it kind of is entirely about bridge. Bridge players need to be with other bridge players. They are a strange set of people. In a way, I feel like bridge has stunted my growth socially. In another way, I feel like bridge has made it easier for me to be sociable and fit in somewhere. I don't know. Yes, I have tennis but there's something about the mutual intellectual stimulation and the ability to always have something to say about bridge. I like tennis and many other things a lot but many days or even weeks there just isn't much to say about it, but there's always a bridge hand or bidding sequence or new convention that I want to discuss. I can't imagine what I would be like without bridge. Regardless, trying to hang out a whole weekend with a fellow bridge player without playing any bridge, especially someone I know almost entirely in a bridge setting, is not a good idea. While in the long run, getting along away from the bridge table is important, it should start at the bridge table because bridge is one (and maybe the only) part of life in which we are truly comfortable and confident and functioning like a normal person (well, normal for a given activity).