There was a time some years ago when I really had it down pat. I could happily spend days on end alone on the steps of my old apartment drinking beer, tea, or soda and reading. I could spend sweat-soaked humid nights all alone without the thought of needing anything or anyone. I'd leap at the chance to have a night to myself in which I could leave all the lights on until four in the morning and get into bed at any hour and drift off crooked in my cold sheets.