I and my parents went to an engagement party for some friends of ours today (I know her through her brother, and he got me my present job at Intersect). It was good, except that I don’t usually do very well at parties. My natural shyness gets the better of me, and I can never think of anything interesting to say or ask. My slight speech impediment doesn’t help, either. So, it was sort of lonely.
It wasn’t helped by the fact that one of my teenage buddies was there, and even though we hadn’t seen each other in years, he barely said “Hi” to me. He wasn’t really rude; he just was obviously interested in doing his own things, meeting other people. This is only the latest manifestation of something that’s been going on since college, though, so I wasn’t particularly hurt by it.