The people I meet.

There is a poem that says “People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.” Generally speaking I know very quickly if it will be a reason a season or a lifetime.

On Dec 16th I was on a flight from Saint Louis to Fort Meyers via Chicago. There was a gentleman sitting next to me who looked and sounded like Mike Ditka. Generally speaking I do not prefer a flight next to Chatty Charlie however Joe (aka Mike D) was not going to let me sleep, read or listen to my ipod (chances are the fact that my head phones were not actually plugged into my ipod gave away the fact that I was not actually listening to anything but just trying to block out the world).

Joe asked me where I was from and where I was headed and we proceeded to talk about his life my life etc. By the end of the flight he had told me at least 6 times how happy he was for me that I would be spending the Holiday’s with my family and how much he liked me but he was not sure why. As we were coming in for a landing in Chicago he gave me some very nice words of wisdom to which I kindly responded “Jesus your getting a little old and wise on me here what the hell?” Had you all been a part of our 53 min conversation you would realize this was a completely appropriate response for the incredibly deep advice I had just received.

He ended the conversation with “I have one more question for you, what’s your name?” I told him and said “My name is Joe and I cannot wait to tell my friends that I met this amazing girl on the plane who I have no idea why I like her so much and I gave her some amazing advice. Only for them to all laugh in my face and say Joe you were drunk and dreaming.”

Joe is clearly a reason not a season or a lifetime. His advice was very timely and relevant to my situation at hand (unfortunately it did not really bring clarity or decision to the situation I am currently debating but it was timely and appreciated).

That being said Joe in another example of the odd responses I get from the people that I meet. There are generally two distinctly different responses 1) the people I meet really like me immediately and yet have no reason or clue why they like me they just know they do 2) they find me cold and stand-off-ish. In both cases in the end they generally come to find that I am awesome (and super modest ) and they either were right to like me upon meeting or wrong to think I was bitchy. What I find peculiar is how there are these two vastly opposite responses to me upon first impression. I often wonder what I am doing or saying in social situations to illicit such differing responses from people.

Any way I can tell you that the cold and stand-off-ish ness is simply because I am shy and socially awkward. It is not intentional not personal and if I knew I was doing it I would absolutely stop. To be honest I get kind of tired of hearing how much more fun I am than you thought I would be and that I am really not bitchy at all (while I know you all mean well when you say it, it’s actually not a compliment).

So for those I have not met or those who are with me when I meet new people feel free to give me a code word so that if I am being cold I can attempt to step back and see if I can decipher what I am doing or saying that is different from when I have me some of you who instantly loved me (although I have to say there are a number of people who to this day I really cannot imagine what they liked off the bat cause I really thought I was cold).