I, too, have expanded my social circle greatly. It used to be my (alcoholic) family and my (lying, cheating) husband, and I was getting a lot of subtle and sometimes not so subtle messages that I was a screw-up. Amazingly, I joined a group and started making friends outside this sphere and found out the rest of the world sees someone very different.
I think back to high school and how rarely I had friends over, didn't really go out with friends much, etc.