"Time, why you punish me," - Hootie and the Blowfish
I'm not much into quoting Hootie, but for some reason that song got stuck in my head and coincided with a general feeling I've been having about time. 
Over the past few years I've grown extremely protective of my time because it's one of the few things that you never get back. There's also never enough of it to satisfy me.
To combat this predicament, any request of my time must undergoe rigorous scrutiny before I agree to the challenge.
Nowhere is this increasing litmus test more apparent than in the social obligations that I agree to attend. In high school and college, I would go to nearly any event regardless of whether I liked most of the people or not.
It was expected, and there was always a decent chance of getting completely drunk, hooking up, making an ass of myself or all of these at the same time.
But now, I have no time for getting together for dinner parties, drinks or virtually anything that is being spear-headed by people I consider work friends or acquaintances. 
Friends with durabilitiy are an entirely different matter. Those are vital to life, but the rest I could do without and have been for many years now. I'm not rude about turning down invitations, yet there's always a convenient excuse for me not to attend some event.
I tend to worry about people who feel driven to spend every waking moment with somebody else. I've always thought that if you can't entertain yourself that you're probably not very good company for other people.
There's no question that I would rather spend an evening alone, doing anything except making small talk with a group of people that will never enhance my life and only contribute to stealing away my free time away from work. My capacity for these kinds of evenings has diminshed faster than Britney Spears' self respect.
Obviously, this is all a cover-up for the fact that I didn't do a damn thing this weekend and enjoyed it.
-BDS
I am sooo with you on this !!! :)
A good addendum to this post would be those people who come to your house and feel the need to stay until all hours of the night, even though you are yawning and saying virtually nothing and every once in a while interjecting "would you LOOK at the time!" while they go on and on in a drunken soliloquy, all the while their voice getting louder and louder.
Anonymous - I'm glad others feel the thrust of this predicament.
Jlee - A good point. There's also few things worse than someone who overstays their welcome & of course, alcohol is involved in most of these situations as obtuseness is only one side effect.
I agree- as just lately my time is very important to me- who I'm willing to spend it with or not is too.
I can't agree more - my motto this year is "I can do so much more with less." And that includes people.
I dont wanna be part of your problems
Dont wanna be part of your crowd.
I agree with much of this. Makes a lotta sense.
You are early in this declaration. I applaud you. I think I was 40 before I decided I wasn't going to socialize with people I didn't care about. And, even so, I still find myself in the odd obligatory situation. I guess you can never completely escape it, unless you become a hermit. Which is tempting.
I agree. Time is too valuable to waste with people you just tolerate at the least and dislike at the most. Plus I think it is healthy to be able to spend time alone. AND a weekend with no commitments is one thing that is not found too often.
I agree and don't bother to attend such events.
This post reminded me of a bizzaro co-worker I used to have years and years ago. She would always insist on driving me home/going out for a drink after work and I had a list of excuses to refer to as to why I could not get a hold of my ride to cancel them haha.
Nobich - I think once you make this decision that your life improves noticeably and quickly.
Anonymous Boxer - I like that motto & that defintely should include people, at the top of the list.
WhatIgot - It made sense to me, and I'm glad it seems coherant in general.
Wendy - Becoming a hermit is tempting sometimes, but then again, the right group of people is just about perfect. And I've been heading this direction slowly but steadily since I wrapped up college and am glad I'm there.
Sarcastic - I agree 100% with all your points, especially with the tolerate at best sentiment because again, life is too short for obligations like those.
Miss Ash - Co-workers can be the worst at this kind of thing. Even if I like you, it's still hard because I see you 40 hrs a week at minimum, and when I'm off work, I don't like to be reminded of it.