Ha, ha, I did something social this morning! Tell me about your social disasters!

[hiddenhome2]

Dh has started going to the Monday morning walking club in our village. He asked if I fancied coming along and explained that the people were older and sensible etc. I was a bit dubious, but like fresh air, so I agreed to give it a go.

I have hypermobility which has resulted in a duff right ankle and dodgy knee, but I put my ankle support and a tubigrip on and off we went.

We set off along a track and it started okay. I walked by myself whilst dh chatted to the others. I was happy in my own world. One of them tried engaging me in conversation, and I made all the right noises and smiled etc.

Well, it began to get muddy. And we had to walk up a steep, muddy bank. It got muddier and muddier and muddier. In fact, it was a veritable mudfest!

One of the male walkers who was chatting to dh insisted on walking at the back because he was the first aider. I hate anyone walking behind me. He talked and talked and my head was full of his chatter

We approached another track and this one was so muddy only a hippo would have been happy with it. I stopped dead and said that I wasn't going any further and was going home. It was wet, cold, muddy, pointless, ankle twisting and chattery hell

I've had to wash my anorak and shoes and my woolly hat is all snagged.

I'm back at home sitting in front of the fire with a coffee and the cats

Tell me all about your forays into the social world

Yeah, I wish I hadn't today

I went to my work christmas party this year! that is as social as I got for a very long time..I was so bored, had to lip read all evening because of the music and couldn't drink on top of it as wanted to leave early so drove (also my social skills really drop after a few glasses of wine!)- I did all the nodding and smiling I could and stayed off my subjects of interest (which is work related so a big social no-no).I run away left as soon as I could and won't be going next year!

Good grief, a Xmas party

I've always been a bit at walking groups, surely the whole point of a walk is to get away from everyone. I adopted a dog a few years ago partly because I love walking alone but then discovered all the other dog walkers who want to stop and chat

I'm a bit scared of walking alone. Me and dh often go for walks, but he joined up to learn some new ones as we're new to the area.

I won't go out walking alone and I don't have a dog as I prefer cats. Dogs do come in useful though.

Oh I hope that didn't sound rude, I can totally see the benefits if you're comfortable in a group. I grew up in the countryside and would spend hours wandering about by myself. Somehow I thought I needed a dog to do that in the suburbs. I prefer cats too. One of mine follows us sometimes

I don't want a dog but I know I'd walk if I had one. I find it hard to be internally motivated!

Not sure I have any fun social disasters! Mostly I just kill time in my head until the torture is over! Now I realise I must've looked really weird at toddler group with ds1 as I just watched the second hand on the clock sweep round for 1.5 hours while ds1 lined cars up Thankfully I was saved from that by ds2 as he reduced me to tears the couple of times I tried the group with him and so I fled!

I socialise with geeky folk but even then I end up saying the wrong thing. Like the guy with the massive monobrow in all seriousness pointing it out for some reason and I said, "It's not like we haven't all noticed it" and everyone stared at me!! What, are we supposed to pretend it's not there?!? Oh my goodness, and the time I insulted my friend so she's had eye laser surgery and used to wear glasses and I was talking about how glasses automatically make people look intelligent and I was curious as to how she looked. So she showed me the photo and it was just after she'd given birth and obviously in hindsight was looking shell shocked and I just said something like, I've never seen someone in glasses look so thick before. FFS. Thankfully she's still my friend though she's not let me forget it! I guess I can see now why people either liked me or hated me, the ones that like me forgive the social faux pas which I don't actually mean to be mean or hurtful and I do apologise when necessary when I see the reaction and work out what I've done wrong.

I did go through a few years recently where I just edited myself constantly and mostly didn't speak, just let people speak to me so I couldn't be wrong. But it all fell apart when I had ds2 and he is such hard work that I simply do not have brain space to constantly act normal.

Xmas party was as bad as you all think! - Though I am pleased I went since I hadn't done anything like it for a while, it confirms that I didn't not imagine all my social quirks!
Antiquity- holding back is my main technique..really frustrating though!

The last work Christmas party I went to with dh I spent the evening taking photos of the way the changing lights changed how things looked, trees, drinks, my own face, while not talking to anyone else. I must've looked like a freak! Sadly, I only feel like that since realising I'm on the spectrum, in some ways ignorance was nicer, but I'm trying to own myself and all that!!