Parents gone a while now. Three siblings still living; all married; 2 nephews. Whole family seems a bit strange to me, but wouldn't trade them for anything. Maybe I'm the strange one. ;) Only a handful of real friends, maybe half are gone now, but got a couple new ones in their 30's. Only known a couple of women in my life, but I might try that again. Nothing seems so urgent any more.
Been "mostly alone" all my life, only realized 10-20 years ago that I've never really felt "lonely". Seems like there's so many fun things to work on or play at, just a few people in your life can go a really long ways. Is my family ideal? Well, works for me.
LOL, been lurking for years - I didn't really understand the article that well, but I enjoyed the comments so much I had to create an acct to say thanks HN.