I try my best to keep my personal meetings with bloggers on the discrete side. Not only because I fancy the hush-hush workings of minds, but also because I regard these encounters with as much respect and privacy as my personal space. Consequently, do not expect a list containing the names of bloggers I have personally run into to appear any time soon.
Today was an apex in awkwardness on my behalf, I think my brain waves either carried the wrong messages or were damaged because of the heavy thinking I have engaged myself in for the past two weeks. At times, I honestly wonder what demons possessed me to do certain things.
I was at a certain location today, casually walking and thinking, feeling utterly lost after a blow of intellectual clash with reality, and I spotted someone I thought I had seen somewhere. I walked on for a short while, now focusing my entire effort on remembering who that person resembles, and then I went back. I knew the person, it was a blogger!
That person was heavily in thought, or boredom, or both - it seemed, and I was somehow floating in my ideas (actually, I was trying to stay afloat) and I thought it would be nice if I came up to the person and surprised them. It was a moment of vague reflection, I do not know what prompted it.
And so I did. I walked up to the person in question and I said hello, they looked up at me with puzzled eyes, but shortly afterwards we started a good conversation and there wasn’t an idle moment of awkwardness. Why lie? There was one moment of awkwardness at the beginning of the encounter, when I had mistakenly shaken the hand of that person, forgetting they do not appreciate that.
I truly regret that, person. I hope you read this and forgive me (I am bluffing, of course).
The awkwardness did not stop at that. In the evening there was a function organized by my employers and, marvel of all marvels, I thought I heard a familiar name introduced to the crowds. It seems I was on an awkward-self-introduction-frenzy this entire day, because I went up to that person and went right ahead and introduced myself after asking about their blog.
You have to understand the reason why all of this is alien to me. I am not the type that introduces one’s self without an occasion or a purpose, or an interest to that matter. I reckon my purpose today was to create some intelligent conversation (and I had missed that lately), because I knew those people were capable of delivering just that. Still, I cannot come to terms with the fact that I intentionally picked out complete strangers from massive crowds and talked to them, just like that - impulsive behavior.
My approach to social life is much more calculated, selective, and sometimes plain bizarre. I joke about attracting the weird folk like flies but it is a fact of life, but to imply that my own actions have gone a bit too off-beat is really original. Here is another originality: I am publishing this.
I think you did the nice thing in introducing yourself to your fellow bloggers as they were around.
I don’t usually approach people until I’ve gotten to know them a little bit either. Of course, this attitude kind of limits the number of people I ever get to know! Every once in a while I force myself to reach out to people and it pays off more often than not. Most people are pretty nice if you give them a fair chance… and what’s the worst taht can happen? You get snubbed? No big deal :)<br /><br />I just wish I could remember to make the effort a little more often.<br />
I am sure that person appreciated the surprise, because he was himself thinking of surprising you on that day. Hmm, intelligent convo, ah, you miss having that in Jordan. Awkward? Nahh ;)
Thanks for letting us know more about the girl with the box! I think it is kind of neat that you went outside your paradigm of normal, and I would not be surprised if the two you spoke with were pleased you did also. But take my words with a grain of salt, as I am overcoming my impulsiveness.<br /><br />I saw one of the male JP citizens at Mecca Mall once, and managed to remember it would not be appropriate to just walk up to him and his friends and say ‘hey!’. Whew!
That was really funny..me too,I’m like that,very difficult for me to go up to perfect strangers and just introduce myself ,and yet ,every now and then I do it..I haven’t regretted that yet..but if I were you,after the first encounter of yesterday,I would have stopped there..at least for the day:)
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">I once
stalked 360east’s Mr. Humeid for a good 3 kilos </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">enthusiastically</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> waiving for him & sounding
my horn under the false impression that he knows me (<span style="font-style: italic;">since we’re both bloggers, eh?</span>) and that he’ll recognise me!
Eventually when he stopped (<span style="font-style: italic;">I’m not sure why</span>) I parked behind him and strolled
towards his car at which point our identities were apparent.<o:p _moz-userdefined="" /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p _moz-userdefined="">I easily
spotted Humeid’s car (<span style="font-style: italic;">not sure if I would if he wasn’t in it</span>), and I think my
beard was enough to spare him the awkward guessing routine, but it surely was
pleasure meeting him and introducing myself (<span style="font-style: italic;">in one manner or the other</span>).<o:p _moz-userdefined="" /></o:p></span></p>
If you happen to run across me on the street, feel free to introduce yourself. As an American, it doesn’t bother me when women initiate the conversation.
<p> You did the right thing. I have changed a bit in this regard as well. When I was younger I was a pretty reserved type of guy. I didnt talk to people I didnt know, didnt converse with strangers.</p>
<p> My wife, coming from a different culture, has brought me out of that. I always talk to people I dont know now. It is no big deal. </p>
<p> As to the shaking hands part, it is a mistake we all make. I remember going to my wife’s university some time back and she introduced me to an Omani class mate of hers. The young girl wore hijab. I guess it was just the ingrained American in me that made me stick out my hand to shake hers.</p>
<p> She was nice and shook it anyway. After being married to my wife for years and traveling the Middle East, I still forgot an offered my hand to a woman first.</p>
<p> But we all make mistakes.</p>
<p> In the DC area I used to talk to Arabs in Arabic all of the time, but I dont dalways do so now. I think that they tend to think I am with the FBI or something.</p>
<p> I have met a few people in "real life" whom I knew from the blog and it has always been a good experience.</p>
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<p>Please do feel free to flag me down and introduce yourself if you are ever in my part of the world, Tololy.</p>
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Sewmouse, I will gladly do that if I can recognize you (which I can’t, by the way). What part of the world are you in?