Despite what I do for a living, I am actually a fairly shy person. Add to it that depression makes you naturally just want to curl up and hide, and you get someone who is just not that great at being social.

Tonight was the office Christmas party at the big boss's house. I needed a night out, and I thought it would be a good way to get to know some of my coworkers. Mercifully, enough of them were kind enough to me that I didn't spend more than a couple of minutes sitting there staring into space with nothing to do and no one to talk to, but that's usually how I am at parties.

I don't work in the main office. Some of these people I met for approximately 1.25 seconds my first day on the job, which is about as high-stress as you can get, and being that I wasn't going to be in the same newsroom with them, I just kind of smiled and nodded and got shepherded to the next desk over. Some of them I can honestly say I have never seen before in my life. Yet every single person who came in and saw me, PLUS their SO's, greeted me by name and asked a question indicating that they knew at least a little about me (or could at least pretend to be interested, but that's kind of an occupational skill).

It made for kind of an uneasy night. I can BS with the best of 'em, but it was very disconcerting to be having to do so. I eventually was able to put bylines to faces just by listening carefully to their conversations with others, and for some reason the spouses mostly took pity on me -- though I had a lengthy chat with the food editor, coincidentally one of the people I had never seen before -- but it was just a weird night.

So I need somebody who has better social skills than I do to tell me how to maneuver one of these outings the next time it happens. Since I've only lived in this town 6 weeks, it's going to happen a lot yet.

Thanks

Candy