Tuesday night I did something completely against my nature: I went on a blind date.
Several months ago, fellow Austin blogger Wendi Aarons and I discovered each other's blogs. Since that time, we've had e-mail discussions about a number of topics. During one exchange, about seeing the movie Wall-e, we shared our mutual love of seeing movies at the Alamo. Wendi suggested that maybe we get together and see a movie sometime. And Tuesday night, that's just what we did.
Even though people don't believe me when I tell them this, I am very shy by nature, and the idea of meeting a someone who is essentially a complete stranger is usually enough to send me into a spiral of panic attacks. I've been known to cancel evenings out with long-time friends because I'm panicked about going out and being social. When I'm not pregnant, I rely on specks of xanax to help me get through a lot of social events. When I say I have panic attacks, I mean I have panic attacks.
By all rights I should have been an absolute wreck on Tuesday. But I wasn't. I told my good friend L that my calmness about Tuesday meant I was either too pregnant and tired to get worked up or at the ripe old age of 38 I'd overcome my shyness and neuroses. She said I was just tired and pregnant.
At any rate, I had a wonderful time with Wendi, who is ravishingly pretty and has super-human intelligence. We saw "Stepbrothers," (which may call into question the whole super-human intelligence thing) and we both liked the movie more than we thought we would.
Funny side story - when I told B what I was up to, he said, "You've never met her before? She could be an axe murderer!" My assurances that our meeting place at the Alamo was pretty safe didn't make him feel any better. When I told Wendi about B's concerns, she suggested I call and give him our "safe" word. The only problem with that plan is that we don't have one. The possibility of my meeting with an axe murderer has never come up before.
The best thing about Tuesday night is that I've made a new friend. We're planning to get together for coffee or lunch once kids are back in school and we have more free time.
Hooray for the internets!
4 comments:
Woohoo you!! My H is always cracking wise about "the people who live in the computer" (ie:YOU!).
Yeah, I grew up with a different mindset; mother employed at IBM, father a technogeek, first computer in the house at age 9, internets in high school, etc. So meeting people from online is old hat and nobody around here gets too excited about that.
The social anxiety thing? That's a whole separate issue. I don't need Ativan for that - dentists and staff meetings only, so far - but I do bail out on an embarrassing number of get-togethers because I convince myself that everyone hates me.
Sigh.
cool, good for you. it's hard ot make new friends at our age.
joining facebook? Meeting people from online? Who are you?
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