Coming Out to Play, Or Not

Tomorrow is the blogger happy hour, as anyone who follows DC Blogs is apt to know. To be honest, I have mixed feelings about it. I've been at this blogging game for a while now. Hey Pretty began in 2004 and before that I maintained another blog entitled Debt Girl about my not so enthralling attempts to better manage my personal finances, and even before that I started and abandoned a couple of other well meaning yet ultimately dead-ended blogging endeavors. All this is to say that I am hardly new to the game. But I am to the DC blogging community, and to be honest, I find it slightly intimidating. I mean, so many people simply seem to already know one another. When I hear about these happy hours, they seem like a great opportunity to meet new people, but in reality they always feel like a party of old friends that's already weathered a number of private and public storms. Okay, to be fair, I've only attended one. And the presence of the News 4 TV crew probably didn't help people feel enthusiastic about mingling with newbies. And to my detriment, I tend to be highly shy around strangers. It takes me a long time to be comfortable with new people, and in some cases I never do. On HP I can be as outspoken, obnoxious, or candid as I please because I have a curtain of words to hide behind. But in person it's me, and that's a bit harder. Sure, I've met others of you in other contexts. EJ for instance, has been wonderful about introducing me to her blogger friends. Candy Sandwich, I met by purely by fate one awful night that I'd rather forget for a myriad of reasons (not having anything to do with CS). And there are others as well whose friendships pre-existed HP, who I consider more to be real life friends. But then there are the people who I have never met, but who I have forged a camaraderie with through cross-commenting and about whom, I have grown more intrigued.

All this is to say that I may or may not wuss out when it comes to attending tomorrow's shin dig. Perhaps the work happy hour I have will fortify me with liquid courage and I'll feel braver about making small talk with strangers. Or maybe I'll show up and leave shortly after a non-blogger friend texts message me that they're going to the Pour House (tomorrow being Friday there's an 80% chance that will happen). Or maybe I'll simply go home and catch up on my Netflix until Sailor calls to inquire about what I am doing. It's impossible to know. But if there are others of you out there who blog in DC, who feel ambivalent about the prospect of hanging out in a room full of your blogging cohorts, please know that you are not alone.