dp50000000

I've always thought I was a normal person. I love people, animals, new places and new adventures. I see myself when I'm 80 in a house on the beach somewhere. I think I have finally found the area where I'm weird, or at least where I have no common sense. I've always been of the mind that if someone looks interesting and you want to get to know more about them, you should walk right up and tell them. My friends tell me I'm nave on this point and I admit I may be. I've had some great stories, but I've never had anything truly bad happen just from meeting people. I've never been murdered, tortured, raped, set on fire, sold as prostitution, or any of the other things my friends have told me they worry about when meeting new people. As such, I have always viewed meeting new people as opportunities to make new friends and learn from them. I've always thought "why worry about what people may be like, just move past it, talk to them and get to know them." Why worry what's going to happen when you could be having a good conversation, sharing a good meal, building stories, playing games or such? I have started to think that maybe my walk up to someone tell them I think they are interesting and start chatting idea may be out of place, or potentially scary. For instance, I walked up to someone a few weeks ago that looked fun at a CD store. I'm looking for new music so I said "You look fun, what do you listen to?" They told me, and then they ran away. When I first moved to the city I saw some people in the park. One was reading a Chuck Pahlaniuk book. I asked her a question about it as I wanted to talk about him as an author. She answered it, and then ran away. I even scared a homeless man away last month when I sat down with him at a park bench asked him what he thought of the new homeless regulation in town. I don't know what's so bad about talking to people. I'll never get it. Don't get me wrong, it's landed me in odd situations in the past. People of the opposite sex assume just because you talk to them you're romantically interested. I'm not. I just think we would be good chums and I don't know any way to get there except being direct in conversation. Oh well. I guess I'm doomed to make chums the old fashioned way by meeting them through friends at parties or dinners. I'm not a bar person as I don't drink and really, you can hardly hear conversation in bars anyway. I'll never learn.