It's us, not you...

Another reason I didn't blog on Sunday is that myself and Cathy were actually, um, what's the word...socializing. Yes, we went out and interacted with other members of humanity that were not co-workers. In this case it was Ian and Jennifer from Igloolik. They write Nunablog and if you're looking for a blog about life in the North, you would probably do better going to their site than sticking around here, in all honesty.

Igloolik is a smaller community of about 1,000 people with the overwhelming majority of the population being Inuit. Whereas Iqaluit is around 9,000 and it's probably about 60 per cent Inuit. So they're getting a much different northern experience than we are. Plus, they're really nice people. We enjoyed the evening out with them. And as they're getting married this summer, we gave them some wedding advice.

Remember kids - weddings. You can bore family, friends and innocent strangers for months before and after the big day with details of the event.

Our evening out with Ian and Jennifer I think was the second time in 2006 that we've gone out and been social with other members of the human race. If you don't take into account work and curling, yeah, that sounds about right. We've also been horrifically negligent in calling friends.

When we first got up here we had good excuses. "Oh, we're busy getting our life in order" or "we're busy adapting to the new community" or, my personal favourite, "We're still in the honeymoon stage and being rude and ignoring people. We'll get over it."

Well, it will be eight months on Thursday since we got married. I don't know when the honeymoon stage ends, but I suspect we're pushing the outer edges of it.

We do feel bad about not calling our friends more often. It is shocking, really. But here are what I think are the two main reasons:

1. We're becoming homebodies. Seriously. It was always a worry when we were in St. John's, but it is much, much worse in Iqaluit. And it's fine with us. We love each other's company and are perfectly happy spending insane amounts of time with each other. I know other couples have to go off and do other things otherwise they'll kill each other. So far, that isn't us. Nor do I think it will be. We're kind of cozy doing our own thing, no matter how anti-social we might occasionally seem to the rest of the world.

Cathy's parents are very much like this, so it doesn't surprise me that something similar is happening to us.

2. While this doesn't apply to Cathy, it is very true of me.

I hate phones.

No really, I seriously hate them.

I can't explain where it came from. Perhaps lasting psychological damage from my adolescence trying to work up the nerve to pick up a phone and call a girl I liked. I don't know. But I have never enjoyed calling people. I disliked doing phone interviews when I was a reporter and always tried to do them in person when I could.

It is very rare I find chat with anyone on the phone for a long period of time. When Cathy was in Rankin last year we did, but that was extraordinary circumstances. But there have been few others. It's probably why I like my electronic gadgets, but can't stand cell phones.

So there you go. If you're a friend and want to chat, by all means, drop me a line. Hell, come up and visit if you want. But the odds of getting a call from us...not so great. Nothing personal, you understand. Just psychological issues.

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