Lost Wanderer

Socializing is difficult for me. People who know me sometimes find that hard to believe, but I would venture to guess that people who know me well can see it. At any rate, I have a hard time getting myself to go out and do things because the social component is often an exhausting prospect. Expending the energy and enduring awkwardness are tough, but overall I think the reward is worth it. It's just a question of convincing myself over and over.

Some people are probably worse than I am, which is some comfort. I think I may have seen one of them last night. I was out at iO West, an improv (largely) comedy theater, and I was having a pretty good night. A guy I know was doing a show, and I took advantage of his offer of a free ticket. I saw that show, which involved a number of people I know to some degree, then I chatted with several of them after. Actually, I did so before as well. I was in good form, and I hung around for most of the night.

There was a guy at the last show who was in some form I'm not sure of. I noticed him first when he said something about selective hearing to the women sitting next to me. He was in front of me. They offered him some kind of assurances about the nature of what they were saying versus what he apparently selectively heard, and it seemed like they were fending off an unwanted and rather ham-fisted overture of conversation. I didn't blame them.

Then it turned on me. The guy addresses remarks I can't make out to me. I look at his face and try to figure out if I should know him, because that seems to happen all the time. I ascertained that there was no reason I should know him. He repeated himself, and I discerned that he was saying "Hey, Curly." That is certainly something you might say to me if you didn't know me. The rest of that show passed with a low-level fear that he might attempt to renew the conversation, but it wasn't to be, and the night reached a happy conclusion hours later.