Great responses, everyone :)  
 
I don't think the novelty of having a little gaming device on the nightstand ever left me; I wound up having to take it out of the room once I'd beaten Aria of Sorrow and FF IV just so I wouldn't reflexively reach for the thing when I'd woken up. Gaming in bed!  It's crazy!
 
I wonder how many more recharges my Gameboy Micro has to go.  The times are steadily getting earlier and earlier.

Man, being able to play Final Fantasy VII on the PSP is to me an amazing act. I'm like you in that I tend to play it sitting on a random couch in my house / apartment, or laying in bed, playing outside or on the train happens less often. But the mere fact that I can play amazing games with powerful stories on this tiny thing anywhere in my house, while walking around and with SLEEP functionality (that might be my one biggest favourite addition) blows my mind.  
 
Also, currently travelling around the world away from my console and TV, is AMAZING considering I can continue play totally awesome games on the psp, continue to roll up katamari even though my address is changing often and I'm living out of a suitcase, that is also truly awesome.
 
Being able to go back to all these remakes that are coming out.. Like the Final Fantasy ones among many other RPG remakes, with new cutscenes and updated graphics is just so much fun and impressive to see on a handheld device! 
 
So yeah, I'm totally feeling you on hand held gaming.. And its doing me WONDERS on this travelling experience I'm having right now.. 

Heh, I remember running to save when the lights turned red when playing games like Golden Sun, Tactics Advance, Pokemon, etc. When I had a Game Boy Color, I waited 10 seconds after saving in Pokemon Red and Silver to make sure that I wouldn't screw anything up. When I first had a GBA SP, I made sure to wash my hands before playing it. Needless to say, I don't do anything like that for any game or any system now.
 
My experience is opposite yours somewhat: LOTS of portable gaming from the ages of 9-13 or so, and then generally stopped and switched back to PCs and consoles. Last major game I played on a portable from start to finish was Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. I can sympathize with you feeling like you're being anti-social if you're playing it often outside the house, because quite a few relatives gave me grief over that.
 
For me, part of the reason behind that switch is that I used to take loads of road trips to relatives' houses, and portables were my best friend in that case. Now if I'm going somewhere, I'm usually the driver, so portables feel like they have almost no place. Sure, they're more convenient when moving around the home and all, but still. The other reason that made me mostly quit portable gaming was the transition to DS, and I wasn't sure if I wanted DS or PSP. Now, I know I would take a DS over a PSP given the choice, but don't really want to shell out the money from it.
 
But hey, maybe life will take me somewhere I don't expect, like becoming a city guy who takes the subway every morning, and the 3DS or PSP2 will become my best friend.
 
Have fun with the Micro, and anything you get beyond that. There's certainly a lot of JRPG/SRPG goodness to be had on portables, at the very least.

Oh god, the sheer mention of the Game Gear gives me memories of my cousin hunting down batteries. I never owned a Game Gear, but I probably played more of the Game Gear than he ever did.  
 
But yeah, my first modern portable game system was the DS, and my first reaction was trying to decipher the fact that I didn't need to buy batteries for it.

If you ever downgrade to an original Game Boy for whatever reason, don't fear about breaking it, because that thing can weather an apocalypse.