Social Interaction

Last night my friend Cat and I went to a friend's for a Soup Party. Many people were invited and many people showed up. I always feel a bit awkward in big social gatherings where I don't know a lot of the people; it's hard for me to just jump into conversation or start one with someone I don't know. Some people are great at this but I am not. So with Cat there as my security blanket (and I for her) we spent a good part of the evening sitting on a crowded couch talking with each other. This isn't bad, but probably not the best way to meet other people. But again, big crowds is not really where I feel comfortable and would much rather have a very small group where I can not feel like I'm competing with other people for talk time.

As Cat and I were getting ready to the end the night, I decided to make an attempt to talk to a girl that I saw just standing in a corner not talking to anyone. Making small talk with strangers is not my forte, but I tried. We talked for a little before I felt awkward and Cat walked over to help me out. When it was clear the conversation was over, Cat left me to get a drink of water and I was left standing by myself, feeling a bit awkward. There was a boy standing next to me, and we both sort of just looked over at each other, and he introduced himself.

And then I felt less awkward. I feel like I can present myself really well when it's just one-on-one, and we had a nice, funny conversation about some llamas his roommate used to have that he once helped cut the toenails of. It was going great (and I was even wondering if he'd ask for my number) when I inadvertently made eye contact with a guy who was passing. Apparently this is party code for "Come over and talk to me." I was not aware of this, as I'm not a party type of person.

Well he introduced himself and started talking, and talking, and talking. And all of a sudden I was stuck between two boys, wishing one would stop talking so I could continue talking with the other. I tried including the first boy in the conversation, but it was hard as the second guy was talking a lot. I tried turning my body to the first boy so he would know I wasn't trying to cut him loose as the other boy kept talking.

In the end, I'm not really sure what happened. Somehow the scene was broken up and I left without talking to first guy again. I never know what to do in these situations, and I'm sad to say that I left with a little bit of regret. But I also felt good for going to a party and meeting two new people, people that happened to be guys.

I've been thinking a lot about dating lately, probably thanks to my friend Jeff and his post about dating and his last words--you only need to be successful once. No matter how many crappy dates you go on or how many you don't, you only need for there to be one good one. My friend Tamara, who got married to one of her good ones today, can attest to that after going on 31 Dates in 31 days. It can happen. With just a little bit of effort, it just takes one.

Cat and I had our thoughts of doing a similar dating project. We even started a blog. It has sadly been sitting in it's same form since August. No dates or set ups. Cat and I realized last night that we are not well-connected enough people to really do it. So really, if any of you readers know of anyone, I'm welcome to set ups and blind dates. Just putting it out there. Because all it takes is one successful date.