Genuinely Nice People

I'll preface this by saying I know I need to work on my social skills. I generally have to step out of my comfort zone to engage in conversation with complete strangers and acquaintances. If I don't feel an instantaneous connection or bond, I struggle to maintain interest, which usually results in silence or stand-offish behavior on my part, often misinterpreted as "shy."

Honestly, I'm always a little shocked when I meet genuinely nice people. I tend to avoid small talk with strangers because a.) there's simply no point, I am never going to see this person again b.) awkward silence is inevitable. Imagine my surprise when I successfully managed to converse with not one, but two nice strangers in the past two days. The first was a vulture in the Lifetime parking lot. He pulled up behind me in a red Ford Escort, rolled down his window and asked if I was parked way down at the end. He actually apologized for having to follow me to my car. We bitched about the lack of parking spots and he informed they sometimes tow from the bank parking lot, located directly behind our lot. Good to know!! I probably would have parked there, if need be.

I met another nice guy in the elevator of my apartment last night. When I entered my building through the garage, he was exiting, but then back tracked to hold the door for me. That almost never happens here! By the time door guy came back in, I was still waiting for the dreadfully slow elevator. Apparently, he'd been up to his apartment only to realize he'd forgotten something in his car. Turns out, he lives on my floor, a few doors down. Our garage is on the lower level so we were stopped at the first floor, where two U of M students got on, talking about course registration. They didn't bother to push the "door close" button. If you knew just how slow the elevators were, you'd understand my impatience!

After they got off on the 4th floor, door guy and I resumed conversation to discuss how annoying it is having to stop on the 1st floor all the time and getting stuck with people who refuse to push the "door close" button. When we exited the elevator, he walked two to three steps ahead of me. He kept speaking as he walked, but he was rushing. Perhaps he felt awkward or I felt the girlfriend vibe. Like maybe he was worried his live-in girlfriend would round the corner and chew him out for making conversation with a member of the opposite sex. Who knows though. I do odd things for no particular reason all the time!

Moral of the story, if you want to converse with me, I prefer to complain about things out of my control!