Rant: being socially awkward

[sighyoung]

Good decision. So many people run away from Paddy's that it's become a sporting event.

[pioneer98]

Well, I just worked a half day and then flew to North Dakota. There is a large group up here from work that are all going out to dinner together. I'm exhausted. I normally struggle in large group situations but when I'm tired it's even worse. All I feel like doing is sitting in the hotel and finding some baseball on TV, surfing the net and going to bed. So we'll see how this goes tonight.

[slide_into_first]

My wife has a close friend who has been through mitt training which is an offshoot of est from the '70's. Whenever we are invited to her house several of her friends will urge me to go through the "training" which is five days of sitting in a room with a couple of hundred people who think they are going to "get" it at the end. It's annoying as hell so I blow them off by telling them with everything I have experienced I got it a long time ago. Then I sit in a corner and surf on my phone.

[IMADreamer]

Well, I just worked a half day and then flew to North Dakota. There is a large group up here from work that are all going out to dinner together. I'm exhausted. I normally struggle in large group situations but when I'm tired it's even worse. All I feel like doing is sitting in the hotel and finding some baseball on TV, surfing the net and going to bed. So we'll see how this goes tonight.

What you want to do is what I'd call the perfect night.

I went to some meeting thing this morning about entrepreneurs or some [expletive]. It was a breakfast thing. I will generally do well at these things because there are a few body shop, and parts shop owners who go. So we end up just talking cars or telling each other about people we've met in the car world. For example one time I met a guy who is a really great metal fabricator via a mechanic who was there. However today it was this weird group of insurance salesmen and other people who generally don't work for a living. I largely sat in the corner and played on my phone. Then I got berated by a guy for not being social at an event that is supposed to be social. I told him to [expletive] off he was ruining my breakfast. Then I left. Guess I won't go back there.

[pioneer98]

Part of the problem is that it's not just that they want to go out for dinner. They want to go out for dinner and then have drinks and hang out for 4 hours. Most of them are younger than me, so it's still fun to get away from the office for them, even if its to freaking North Dakota. I'm old enough and I've traveled enough that I get zero fun from traveling, unless it is to someplace cool or somewhere I've never been. Also, it's a weird mix of some people I get along with fine, others I don't know well at all, and then a few who I frankly don't get along with real well. I don't know but these kind of situations are tough and awkward for me. I paid my dues last night. I think I will pass tonight.