The introverted extrovert

Or maybe I'm an extroverted introvert?

In any situation where I'm surrounded by new people, I'm that quiet person. I stand in the corner at the networking event, drink in hand, looking around vaguely but not making eye contact, hoping someone will break the ice first. When I first start a new job, I sit at my desk and don't say much. I come and go without notice. I come across as withdrawn, standoffish even.

But once I've warmed up, once I get to know you, shut me up. The hidden E that Myers-Briggs claims I truly am comes roaring forth.

It's that outer I shell, though, that keeps me away from most things that involve Mixing 'n' Mingling, unless I've got someone to go with. Despite this, however, I occasionally do it anyway. Maybe it's my inner E trying to get out?

So I and E both came with me last night to the Silver Spring MomzShare get-together, a large (50? more?) gathering of other women who are also bloggers and also Momz (with a z, bitch). It was supposed to run from 8 to 11, but I was certain I'd never survive the whole evening. 3 hours in a roomful of strangers? Not me.

I stood in the corner at first, finally rescued by the evening's speaker, coach and nice person Lauree Ostrofsky, who later led us in a group exercise where we had got to meet another attendee. So I wound up talking to Amanda who turned her passion for photography into her business. I even volunteered to introduce her to the whole crowd.

And maybe it was the wine kicking in, but then I found myself rather easily introducing myself to someone else, and then someone else walked up, and then we had an interesting group conversation.

And then I won one of the great raffle prizes to La Papillon Spa in Timonium.

And then I met another interesting woman, and suddenly I looked at my watch and it was 11 and the event was wrapping up.

Survive 3 hours in a roomful of strangers? That's me.

(But don't get me started on how stupid I was not to somehow jot down the Twitter handles of the people I met so I could look them up today. So if I met you last night, I'm @moonheids.)