Thursday, January 31, 2013
No, wait! That's not what I said!
Wasn't I just saying last night that I'm a champ at talking?
Tonight I went to a cycling class and noticed a familiar gal across the room. I knew her when we were teenagers. I thought maybe she saw me at some point during the leg-crumbling hour of pedaling to hell, so when it ended I approached her and said hi. I had to say my name since I could tell she didn't instantly recognize me. She seemed happy/surprised to see me. She mentioned that my darker hair threw her off. Yeah, I get that a lot. ;) I thought she looked particularly youthful, so I kindly remarked, "You don't look like you've aged a bit!" She looked absolutely flattered as she recapped my comment. "I look like I've aged a bit?!" *gasp* Me: No!!!! No!!!!! You DON'T look like you've aged, hahahahhhhahhhhaaaaahaha!!!
It was hard to recover from that moment of duncy enunciation. My mealy-mouthed delivery sure put an unexpected damper an otherwise nice compliment. I felt like a total goober.
This is why most of the time I purposefully slink out of view when I spy anyone I know in public, especially if it has been a very long time since we last met. Just yesterday morning I saw someone I knew in a parking lot as I was putting gas in the car, and part of me really wanted to run over and say something. But fearing my probable awkwardness, I didn't dare approach. My one valid excuse-- the person appeared to be on the phone and I didn't want to interrupt.
Arrrgh! I get so nervous and self-conscious when I'm met with the prospect of a new conversation. I'm sick of it! I hope this upcoming class will cure me of my big ol' debilitating vocal infirmity.
Wish me luck!
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Oh man, if I had a million dollars for every time something like this happened to me, I'd be a billionaire. (Why settle for a nickel?!) I remember that time when I was talking to a wonderfully amazing girl from high school and was trying to tell her that she was fabulously awesome and everyone adored the crap out of her, but I think I ended up saying everyone hated her. Oh yeah, I'm just that articulate.
ReplyDeleteYou're very brave to approach her, I think I would have been too shy. Another problem I have is that I remember faces, but not names. I often see someone and they look familiar but I can't even place where I know them from. And people will come and say Hi to me and they know who I am, but I have no idea who they are. I think those kind of situations are awkward for most people, I admire you for trying to put yourself out there :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I pay attention I'm like that, although most of the time I'm pretty sure I make people think I hate them because when I'm out shopping or whatever I don't pay attention to people's faces. We've been out and Dave was all 'isn't that so and so you just walked right on by'.
ReplyDeleteYou were delirious from an hour of cycling to hell...it's a situation that would happen to anyone!! SOO funny though!!
ReplyDeleteWas I the one you saw and ignored at the gas station?
ReplyDelete