h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Last Saturday I enjoyed going to the concert, not just because of the beautiful music, but also because it was one of the few opportunities I have to interact with other people. Still, it is an awkward affair for me. I saw so many people there, with whom I would have enjoyed talking, but there was little time for talking. And it was difficult to make use of the opportunities available. Consequently, I felt a lot of self-conscious awkwardness, not knowing really how to approach people and starting up a conversation. Or just exchange a word or two.

I had an interesting experience Dmitri will have sympathy for! Generally I am good at recognizing people but there were two incidents that were a bit tricky. The one was a guy I’ve known for many years now, but haven’t seen for a few of those years. He used to have a good head of hair but then became bald in the typical male pattern which I also have, the hairline ‘receding’ from the front. But at the concert, he had it all off, in the pattern more typical of a bowling ball. He greeted and smiled at me, and I needed a couple of seconds to recognize him. Only a couple of seconds, but still!

Another guy I saw chatting to one of my friends, and recognized him as someone I know, but it took me a while to figure out just how I know him. I chatted with him in a friendly fashion, and then when he turned away for a moment to talk to someone else, I asked my friend what his name was. My friend didn’t know either! So *he* asked the unidentified guy, when he was back in the conversation, what his name was. When I heard his name, I still couldn’t quite place him … but then things started working in overdrive in my mind and finally it all came bursting through in a flood. He’s the guy at the company that installs and fixes security gates and systems and he’s been at my house a lot because of problems I have with my outside gate and the intercom connected to it. The reason I didn’t recognize him was because he had grown a particularly goat-like goatee! And also because a musical concert was a completely different situation than a security gate needing to be fixed.

But anyways, those were the only two brief ‘identity problems’ I experienced. But other than that there were problems of getting an ‘opening’ for talking to people. Do any of you experience it? Where you see a certain person in a crowded room you would like to speak with; you make your way towards the person, but he or she is so involved in speaking with someone *else* that you don’t find a gap for entering into the conversation. At any rate I experience this a lot. On my part, I try not to dominate people so much that *other* people don’t find a gap for entering into the conversation, and at an event like this where there are so many people, I never speak to one single person for very long.

I prefer speaking to people one-on-one or in small groups, so that I and everyone else can easily get enough opportunities to say what we want to say.

I like the idea of bowling-ball pattern male baldness...

Believe me I feel awkward in a room full of people and hate parties, I am much more comfortable one-to-one or a small group of people. My sister is the exact opposite. She *plans* parties and loves all the social butterflying.

I can sympathise with the memory problems, which doesn't get any better as you age. Yesterday I left my handbag at my step-daughter's house because I was so fixated on setting her alarm (not something I am used to) and made it all the way home before I asked Ian if he'd seen my handbag... it had my phone in it, so I had to all the way back to hers, let myself in, turn the alarm off (I knew where my handbag had been left) reset the alarm, dash home to finish cooking our tea...