So I finally organized myself enough to go out to New City again. Surprisingly I found someone I knew there, Jake. He is actually the one who gave me the advice that I repeated in my first LiveJournal entry: “I think someone mentioned to me once that you have to go to a bar several times before they start accepting you. ” I wasn’t expecting him to be there, but now that I think of it, he may have mentioned that New City was his regular bar. I didn’t actually expect to run into him. So, being the social parasite that I am, I used his table as a home base. I talked to some of the other people there. It was by far the most successful trip to a bar that I have ever had. But still, it takes a lot for me to start talking to a person I don’t know.
I’m actually worried that I’m not an interesting person. When I’m talking to someone I have a tendency to not talk about myself. I’ll happily listen to the other person, but I don’t add much to the conversation. Not very interesting. I would like to think that I could talk about myself, but I need to learn to force myself to do that. I noticed it today at brunch where I was listening to other people talk and not adding anything myself. (Social Parasite?) That might have been from lack of sleep though. I’ve got to come up with some anecdotes. I was even asked questions that would have been a good opening. I was put on the spot for not drinking coffee, tea, or alcoholic beverages. They tried to see about getting me out and forcing me to drink. I’ve had that offer countless times before. Friends who know me have an easy time being polite by offering me a beer they know I won’t accept.
I don’t think my running club knows me at all. I used to run with a girl name Monica (used to because she injured herself and hasn’t shown up for a run or a brunch in quite some time) who would happily talk about her work and education. But the more I think about it, she really didn’t know anything about me. I never mentioned my hobbies to her. Maybe I’m embarrassed about playing D&D?
One of the problems I had last night was that a person I was talking to was a smoker. Edmonton doesn’t have a bylaw yet that says no smoking in public. She lit up several times while I was talking to her so I got a good dose of secondhand smoke. So when I woke up this morning, I felt congested. My throat felt scratchy and still does. That latter part may have been from trying to talk over the loud music, but I don’t think so.
So under these conditions I went for a 16 km run. It was only -19, but the wind chill pushed that down to -31. It wasn’t actually that bad. I layered enough, and traction was actually quite good. From all the snow we’ve gotten recently, I wouldn’t expect that, but the sidewalk sweepers had done a good job.