Everything In Between

Ahh, another good day. My schedule seems to be teetering on the edge of vampirism. Today (Wednesday) really began for me at four o’clock in the afternoon, since I had slept from nine o’clock in the morning ’til then.

My Day In A Nutshell

After spending some time in the shower, answering emails, and generally waking up, I grabbed my laptop and headed to the NYCwireless meeting tonight. There, I spoke with Dana a little about the new CSS for the web site. He gave me access to the HTML templates and so I’ll be able to make changes to the site via the CMS used.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay for the meeting. It started very late and I had intended to leave early anyway to go meet Angelique and Hannah for dinner and to see Sin City again. (I swear, it’s really just that much fun!) I arrived at the theater at 8:07 PM. Angelique was already waiting there and introduced herself. We instantly started talking like old friends, hugged, and hopped into the nearby New Venus Restaurant to grab food.

Soon, Hannah called me up and I directed her to join us at the diner. After introductions, several cups of coffee, and scrambled eggs and corned beef hash, we strolled over to the theater, conversing the whole way. The movie, as was mentioned earlier, was a lot of fun for us all.

Afterwards, the three of us headed up to Melinda and Mark’s apartment. The four of us (Melinda, Hannah, Angelique, and I) hung out for another two hours or so before Hannah went to crash and Angelique and I had to head home. I showed them 43 Things, Melinda showed us pictures of her travels, and Hannah and Melinda enacted a scriptlet Hannah wrote. Angelique seemed to enjoy the new company and the conversation.

I finally hit the grocery store before I came home. Then I answered yet more emails and spoke with Tom and Sara over IM. Just a really great day.

Social Successes

I’m really glad I organized this little get-together. I’ve officially decided that filling my calendar with things to do is an important step in the process of maintaining a happy balance in my life. I like being active and I like being social.

Also, I’m absolutely amazed, awed, and proud of myself for being so effortlessly outgoing. I have never imagined that I could be this way, but I am, and I’m doing it very well. The whole meet-and-greet thing (as well as “making a good first impression”), thanks to the practice from Meetups, other groups, and general experiences, has become almost second nature to me.

Several days ago I went to the Consultants Meetup, which was held at a Starbucks. When I entered the shop, there were two people sitting on opposite sides of the store. After getting some water, I asked one of them if he was there for the Meetup, and he said yes. Soon after, the other person heard us talking and joined in. After that, our Organizer showed up and joined the fray.

Not to sound pretentious, but that Meetup succeeded so quickly and smoothly because I had the balls to ask a stranger if he was there for a meeting. That stranger then emailed me after the Meetup and wants to meet with me in private for coffee soon, which is wonderful because I have some questions I’d love to ask him (he’s a software developer by profession).

And while I’m on the topic of emails, I recieved two other emails from strangers who want to meet with me. One of them couldn’t make it to the Consultants Meetup, so he sent an introduction to me via email. The other found me through my 43 Things list and then surfed on to my homepage. (I know this because he referenced various things about my web sites in his email.)

These things are all telling me that I’m someone people want to get to know. That tells me that there’s something about me which is attractive (I’m not talking about romantic attraction here). This all started because I’ve realized that I’m not shy anymore, and I’m actually rather outgoing, friendly, interesting, and a lot of fun to be with. That’s big—real big.

Tonight felt like the manifestation of this realization. Conversation flowed like a gentle waterfall between myself, Angelique, and Hannah. I’ll never forgive myself for saying this, but I felt cool—the kind of cool that comes from self-confidence and honesty, not a faked attitude. I felt cool being myself, not trying to be something, someone, or some way which I thought would be “cool.”

And that was cool. Really cool.