I have this thing with being shy. I don't know where it came from because I was certainly not shy when I was younger. But somewhere between moving to a whole new country and growing up trying to be "polite" "girly" girl (yah right), I caught this shyness like a disease. I try to fix it with forcing myself to get better at socializing, and then it always backfires with being stressed out about it. I'm overly hard on myself for not being "smooth." Oh, I should've said THIS at that moment; or WHY DID I EVEN SAY THAT?? Anyhow, it's silly, I know.
So a couple months ago, I left a post on Knitmoregirls' Podcast Ravelry Group because in one of their episodes, Jasmin (the daughter) mentioned how she didn't "understand" shy people. So many shy knitters expressed their feelings on their Ravelry Group thread afterwards, even commenting on how rude Jasmin was when she sounded like she was disgusted at shy people. C'mon, really? You enjoyed knitmoregirls' podcast enough to join the Ravelry Group and still don't know what kind of people they are? I am sure they didn't mean "disgust" or any type of rudeness when they said that they didn't understand shy people.
But I ended up also leaving a comment on that thread, and mentioned how I, this shy person, went to a yarn shop when the knitmoregirls came down to So Cal, saw them, and then lingered around their general area because they were talking to other knitters, hoping for a pause so that I could jump into their conversation, and then ended up missed them because they left the party while I was paying for my yarns.
That was two years ago, and then just a month ago, this time I went to THEIR hangout area in San Jose, went to one yarn/fabric shop, was told that the knitmoregirls were JUST in that morning, went to a different yarn shop, found them there, and AGAIN missed a chance to say hello because I was waiting for them to stop talking to this other knitter.
What?
I didn't want to be rude and stop their conversation!
Yesterday, I was once again listening to their podcast in the car, and almost had to stop the car to laugh because they actually mentioned this. They are going to be at a knitting event next year, and although they're not going to have an official meet-and-greet session, please come and say hi, and "don't wait for us to stop talking because that will never happen" and "we won't bite" or something to that effect. I felt like they were directly talking to me. HAHA.
I don't know if I'll have time to go to Stitches West next year, but I guess if I do, I'll go say hi to them. "Hi, My name is blah blah blah; I was the shy one who couldn't say hello in the middle of your conversation with other people." ....
....
Smooth. Real smooth.