Tuesday, February 23, 2010

strangers in the night

On Friday night I went to a Meetup with my friend. For those who don't know, Meetup.com is a website in which people with common interests in any given community plan times and places to "meet up" and discuss said interest. This one was for people "new" to the town I live in.

Now, I'm not particularly new to this town but this town does have a reputation of being notoriously difficult for people to make friends. Maybe because all the young people leave town as soon as they have a set of car keys and $26 in their pocket.

I'm not opposed to meeting new people, but I wasn't exactly sure how this meet up of random strangers was going to go. But I knew I was looking forward to it.

I have discovered that I thrive around complete strangers. I'm talkative, funny, witty, polite and just enough out there to make people wonder if I'm actually crazy or just totally awesome (answer: totally awesome).

There is something so freeing about talking to people I suspect I'll never see again. There's really only two possible outcomes. 1. We become instant friends because you too are totally awesome. 2. I never see you again. What is there to lose? Literally nothing.

And of course the group turned to be very nice people (read: they laughed at my jokes!) but it was not without it's....well, "flaws" is a bit harsh but it's 435am and I can't really think of another word. It was more than obvious from the start that Joe Cool sitting next to me was there for the sole purpose of getting some tail. Once he heard the dreaded BF word escape my mouth he turned to my friend with the oh so clever expression of "So, what's your story?" (Ooooooo good one! Sorry to be missing out on that!) I mean he might as well have been wearing a shirt that said "Help. Not getting any." To be fair, my opinion of Joe may have been tainted after he came this close to puking his sushi all over me. (Hint: If you've never been to a sushi bar, don't order actual sushi! Ease into it for goodness sakes!)

Aside from that minor annoyance the evening was fine. I think it's funny I/people like me feel more open and more comfortable being ourselves around complete strangers than people who actually know and love us sometimes. We qualify it by saying "It's okay, they don't know me." This little phrase gives us the courage to be ourselves, say what we want, let it all hang out. But really, shouldn't it be "It's okay, they know me" that gives us that right? Don't our friends choose to be around us for a reason? Aren't they going to love us for who we are, and if they don't then to hell with them? Maybe it's society or maybe it's our attitude but I think I'll try a little more of the opposite. I probably won't start holding things back when it comes to strangers, but I'll work on being a lot more comfortable just being me around those who choose to associate with me. (changes into sweatpants and belches loudly). Ahhhhhhhhh, that's better.

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