Shenanigans!
Happy happy!
We had a shindig here last night for David's birthday, and lo, it was chock full of hoot with just a little bit of nanny. Of the nine people sitting around, only 3 had ever played Catchphrase before, but we had to give it up after a couple of rounds because 1 person had to be left out for it to work, and that always sucks. Dennis and Mitch and Blake brought 'Fact or Crap', which was fun, but not made of chocolate-covered awesome, like Catchphrase.
Alas, we did not get to play Settlers of Catan. Need a smaller party for that.
Some asshole called the police on us for a noise complaint, which was ridiculous. Mitch was playing guitar out on the patio, and for about 2 minutes the guitar got kind of loud. Seriously, people in the suburbs are pathetic. Come knock on my door, for fuck's sake. Ask us to quiet down. Grow a pair! It didn't slow the fun down, but it irritated me. Stupid suburbanites.
People were here until about 2 am, and Errin stayed the night (yay!). I'm feelin' pretty good. This is the first time I've 'had people over' (non-family-people) since we moved in (other than that hour or so that Errin and her brother Chris spent here last week). And it went well. People ate food. They played games. They stayed late. People came into my home and had fun, and let me feed them, and so I feel very satisfied and pleased.
Oh, and this one's for Laura and all my Cafeteria Day buddies: I made little goodie bags with candy and gum and rubber bands and army men and pencils. After awhile, people started noticing the little army men placed here and there in the apartment and were shooting rubber bands at each other. It gave me a warm, glowy feeling.
The people I'm becoming friends with up here have, the more time they spend with me, started to realize that my version of "mild" is everyone else's version of "ohmigodintense". It's something I've dealt with all my life, because I am both somewhat socially insecure/nervous and tend to be very energetic. That energy is great when it comes to getting things done and working with kids, but I know that it can also be overwhelming (even obnoxious). It can put people off. I get that.
Whenever people start to tell me that I need to relax, I have learned to try really hard to bite down my frustration and snap-backs of "I AM relaxed!" and work on toning it down. It gets tiring for me, because even when I am working hard on toning it down, the "relax" comments don't always go away. The voice in my head keeps yelling "I'm trying! I really am trying! Stop criticizing me!" but I have to shove a cookie in its mouth and not yell at people who...um...just don't know me that well yet.
I think last night was just the eye-opening moment where everyone realized that no, it's not the coffee or the sugar or any of that. I'm just really that energetic quite naturally, and most people don't see my uber-calm and terribly-serious side until they've spent one-on-one time with them.
We had a shindig here last night for David's birthday, and lo, it was chock full of hoot with just a little bit of nanny. Of the nine people sitting around, only 3 had ever played Catchphrase before, but we had to give it up after a couple of rounds because 1 person had to be left out for it to work, and that always sucks. Dennis and Mitch and Blake brought 'Fact or Crap', which was fun, but not made of chocolate-covered awesome, like Catchphrase.
Alas, we did not get to play Settlers of Catan. Need a smaller party for that.
Some asshole called the police on us for a noise complaint, which was ridiculous. Mitch was playing guitar out on the patio, and for about 2 minutes the guitar got kind of loud. Seriously, people in the suburbs are pathetic. Come knock on my door, for fuck's sake. Ask us to quiet down. Grow a pair! It didn't slow the fun down, but it irritated me. Stupid suburbanites.
People were here until about 2 am, and Errin stayed the night (yay!). I'm feelin' pretty good. This is the first time I've 'had people over' (non-family-people) since we moved in (other than that hour or so that Errin and her brother Chris spent here last week). And it went well. People ate food. They played games. They stayed late. People came into my home and had fun, and let me feed them, and so I feel very satisfied and pleased.
Oh, and this one's for Laura and all my Cafeteria Day buddies: I made little goodie bags with candy and gum and rubber bands and army men and pencils. After awhile, people started noticing the little army men placed here and there in the apartment and were shooting rubber bands at each other. It gave me a warm, glowy feeling.
The people I'm becoming friends with up here have, the more time they spend with me, started to realize that my version of "mild" is everyone else's version of "ohmigodintense". It's something I've dealt with all my life, because I am both somewhat socially insecure/nervous and tend to be very energetic. That energy is great when it comes to getting things done and working with kids, but I know that it can also be overwhelming (even obnoxious). It can put people off. I get that.
Whenever people start to tell me that I need to relax, I have learned to try really hard to bite down my frustration and snap-backs of "I AM relaxed!" and work on toning it down. It gets tiring for me, because even when I am working hard on toning it down, the "relax" comments don't always go away. The voice in my head keeps yelling "I'm trying! I really am trying! Stop criticizing me!" but I have to shove a cookie in its mouth and not yell at people who...um...just don't know me that well yet.
I think last night was just the eye-opening moment where everyone realized that no, it's not the coffee or the sugar or any of that. I'm just really that energetic quite naturally, and most people don't see my uber-calm and terribly-serious side until they've spent one-on-one time with them.