Thanks, Mystic
Rshaw, drinking away the anxiety is way too easy! Or eating it away. Until people try to talk to you while you're stuffing your face with some messy food and then eating isn't too easy, either, haha.
LaMa, I love being the first person at events! You're right, you can just sneak off whenever and not feel too bad. Unfortunately this most recent situation was a surprise party... I made my presence known by being flustered and weird right when I walked in. And I was trying to pretend it wasn't noticeable to anyone else but the party recipient's mom, who I met during that moment, told my friend how bad she felt for me because I was so nervous and uncomfortable. Ohhh, well.
Cate, I guess it's a common theme for us on the WLF, right? Having a job to do where you have to talk to people and provide a service sounds perfectly reasonable. Having to make small talk with people and develop that into interesting conversations sounds TERRIFYING!