Friending People Without Facebook

Tomorrow, it will be one whole week since I have had social interaction with anyone beside workers at restaraunts and stores and my next door neighbor Clara. Webcamming doesn't cut it when the network is slow. And Murphy only wants to talk about food.

So, tomorrow, for my one week anniversary of independance/deathy-defying loneliness, I intend to make a friend.

I talked to Nate earlier on the phone and he suggested just going up to people and saying hi. This sounds good in theory because I imagine going up and saying hi to Nate, who would totally welcome this behavior. Then, the more I've thought, I've imagined going up to other people I know, as a stranger, and just saying hi. Tyler Roberts types would think I was off or maybe going to rob him. Michael would think I thought he was straight and blurt out something about Hannah Montana to tip me off and avoid an all-too-awkward make out later. Elizabeth Rue would squint at me and either laugh and hug me, or say "So, heh, uh, whats wrong wtih you anyway?"

All these response aren't THAT bad. But then I started imagining real stranger types. Not just people who I know as strangers.

Potential Things that Could Go Wrong:

1.) The person sitting alone that I approach could be dating/engaged/married to a very jealous pyscho person who enters the cafe moments after I have guts-upped enough to say "HI." and assault me with a cafe au lait and to my utter disappointment, I would find out later that this person is the daughter of some important figure in new orleans like the Mayor or the Editor of Offbeat (the magazine i want to try to intern with.)

2.) The person I walk up to is deaf. And then, I just look like a handicap-hunter.

3.) I realize 2-3 sentences in that this person is sitting alone for a reason. Not just to shoot the shit. I realize this when I view his laptop screen and he is watching a documentary on a woman who still breastfeeds her 8-year old, and upon me seeing this, he goes "Ya ever seen this? I think she's REALLY onto something."

These are just some thoughts for now. I will report back tomorrow.


PS. What prompted my decision to go friend-hunting tomorrow, other than my absolute lunacy, was that my neighbor Clara is having a friend from Phoenix in right now. They came in her house and I just heard them yipping and hugging and yawing on and on about stuff. Chitter chattering like all of us used to do in college. And I really missed everyone. I'll make new friends, but I'll never replace the ones in Bowling Green.