Start doing more things alone

Kind of off topic, but your comment reminded me of something that I've wondered about for a couple of months.

I was in the US (NYC) last year and went to a music event at a bar. My girlfriend and I were there an hour early, so we grabbed a table of four near the front (we were meeting two other friends). When our friends arrived and sat down, we noticed that someone had left a jacket on one of the chairs at our table while we were sitting there (it wasn't there when we took the table).

We were a little confused but our friends sat down anyway. Right as the show was starting, an older guy came up and said that we were in "his" seat, as it had his jacket on it. He was pretty angry that we'd taken "his" seat, and we didn't feel like an argument, so we let him drag the chair off somewhere else, but it felt like he was being a bit of an asshole.

Is this a social thing in the US that I just don't get (I'm British) or was the guy just being an asshole?

I definitely need to do more of this.

Personal anecdote time: About a year ago a band I like (which also happens to be a side project of members of my favorite band) was playing in my city and I was trying to find friends to come with me, but none could or wanted to. I spent a few hours beforehand agonizing over whether or not to go alone but I finally decided "screw it, I'm going." Got to the club, band came on, played a kick-ass show, and after I went to buy a record at the merch table I spotted the singer (also one of the core members of said favorite band) hanging out by the bar just talking to people. So I went over and said hi, shook his hand, told him how awesome the show was and was generally a starstruck idiot the whole damn time.

None of that would have happened had I decided not to go alone, and it seemed silly in retrospect that I spent so long agonizing over the decision, but I was definitely grappling with a degree of social anxiety. But now it's something I do all the time. The key was convincing myself that no one actually cares if you're at a concert by yourself.

I think that's true of a lot of other social situations, but sometimes it's a hard mentality to internalize. Kind of weird how much we care about strangers' perceptions of us.

Maybe he was alone, he went to buy a drink and came back to find his seat taken? I wouldn't be too surprised if leaving your jacket to claim a seat is a common practice among older generations. If I imagine the setting to be 50's/60's, and watched it in a movie, it would seem you were the assholes. At least offer him a space in the table to join you. Alas, this is the modern times, so my critique does not apply, it's only a suggestion why the older man might be angry.

I've found snowboarding to be an amazing activity to partake in alone. I'll take a mid weekday off and drive to Tahoe (I live in CA) and most resorts dont have lines at the lifts.

At my own steady pace, I'll get somewhat lost in the woods. Total silence and just the trees and snow. Maybe sit down and take it all in. I find these trips to be the best vacations and often I don't stay more than a day.

You can just .... wander around. That's the beauty of traveling alone. There is no mutually agreed upon agenda - just do whatever you want. Go from place to place for as long as you feel like. Decide last minute where you want to go next. This may or may not appeal to you depending on your personality, but I have found it to be exhilarating. You pick up and leave travel companions along the way. I spent about 4 months in SE Asia just wandering from place to place - even ended up going to some countries I didn't originally intend. :-)

I've also noticed that people are a lot more likely to come up and start a spontaneous conversation with me when I'm not already part of a group of people. I don't know exactly why that is.....

Regarding the money constraint - if you wanted to go pretty cheap you can fairly easily travel in SE Asia for less than $1000 per month. Hostels are cheap. The best food is also the cheapest. Lots of cool things to do for free or very little money.