seeing people you know in public

[clingclangclong]

If you see someone you know in a public place and they're talking to someone else (someone you don't know well) do you go up to them and interrupt their conversation to say hi?

I have been beating myself up about this (probably needlessly) because I think that it's a problem with me that I feel embarrassed approaching people, even if they are my friend in a situation where I haven't already arranged to meet them or where I have seen them spontaneously. I just seem to have this really heightened anxiety about not wanting to intrude, or encroaching on people's time when they have not set it aside for me already. Especially when they are with someone else.

Am I correct in my hunch (very strict upbringing where I was brought up to think I was always wasting other people's time) or do people do this all the time?

You have to read the situation, I think. I would do a wave and call 'hi' and smile, and see whether the reception was an 'open' welcoming / beckoning gesture, or just a quick 'closed' wave and smile back.

I wouldn't interrupt in the circumstances you've described unless it was a very close friend.

id smile and wave at them as i was passing but i wouldnt stop unless i hadnt seen them for ages, and then id say hi to their friend too. Id then say to my friend, lets catch up soon, ill text you, cant stop (even if i was able to) and then leave them to it

No i don't but then i generally have anxiety about interacting with people unless I've mentally prepared or we're in very familiar circumstances e.g. i will quite happily chat to colleagues at work but if i see them in the supermarket i hide. / pretend i haven't seen them.

I think it depends on the circumstances and how well you know them. A good old friend, I'd have to, even if it's a quick hello, to a normal friend or aquatintance maybe a wave. Good question, never thought about that before

It's funny, isn't it? I always feel sooo self conscious about interrupting but I've lost count of the number of times I've had my conversation with someone interrupted by someone else.