Awkward Encounters

Yes I know it has been a while since I have blogged. Well after a mini-vacation/hiatus/hibernation - whatever you want to call it - I am coming back and going to attempt to keep up on this blogging habit. I will admit, it is harder to remember than I thought it would be...

Okay... so Awkward Encounters. These two little words can pretty much sum up my life in a nutshell. I feel like my whole life is an awkward encounter. But everyone has experienced a few where literally these moments come upon you when you least expect it and you dont know what to do with yourself. How do I react? What do I say? What do I do!?

There are so many awkward encounters in my life that there is no way I could go through all of them (I believe a friend of mine as jokingly put the count at around 1,459 but in reality she might not even be kidding) so I am going to categorize some of the different encounters one can come upon - and I can almost guarantee I have been through them all!

The "I cant Remember Their Name But They Look Familiar/They Remember Me" Encounter
We ALL have been here before (and if you havent, well you are either living under a rock or you just have one hell of a memory) whether it was passing someone on the street, walking to class, out to eat, grocery shopping. You and this person catch each others eye, maybe walk right by each other, and you can see the light bulb go off and CRAP what's thier name?? So you go through the entire "Hey, hows it going?" conversation  figuring out all the ways to talk to them without having to say their name. I cant tell you how many times I would walk the quad at U of I and get shoutouts "Hey Meg, how's it going?" and I couldnt tell you their first name or anything about them (I must sidenote here that I was a bartender AND an extremely social person when I went out so I met an exuberant amount of new people on a regular basis)  But what happens when they start conversing about how great it would be to get together and catch up, but you STILL cant figure out what thier name is or its on the tip of your tongue - so now not only do you have to carry a conversation by never saying thier name but trying to ask questions and get information out of them to know who they are. Most awkward moment? When this happens and you are with someone, and the introductions have to happen - and then its completely obvious you dont know thier name because you are stumbling and start getting red from embarrassment. OR when you say a name it is totally not their name... and then you have to play it off like you had a brain fart/that persons name was just on the top of your head and you didnt mean to say that.... yea this section has way too many different awkward scenarios that can happen.

The "First Date" Encounter
So you meet a guy/girl one night, things hit off pretty well and phone numbers are exchanged. A couple days later you are texting (because no one calls each other anymore and THATS OKAY "insert extreme hand gestures here") and decide to meet up for dinner and/or a couple drinks. This is where the whole first date awkwardness comes into play. And all of you know, most of the time the first date is ALWAYS awkward. You really dont know this person that you are meeting up with and so now everything is about first impressions. What should I wear? What if I overdress/underdress (this could make the situation awkward in general showing up in the wrong clothes!) Do they pick me up? Do I just meet them at the place? After all this is figured out, you eventually go on the date. Now here is the big question - how do you greet each other? Do you shake thier hand? Hug them? Rub their shoulder and say it is good to see you again? (Yes, I have done this. Please openly judge away) So now you sit down and the first few moments are always rough, trying to get the so how did your day go, hows your week been, whats new comments out. From there on out hings start going great, conversation is steady until finally it is the end of the night and it is time to leave. NOW what do you do now? This is an awkward moment because you dont really know exactly what the other person is thinking yet. You may think that the date is going great, but what if he/she isnt feeling it? As you are walking out the door, mind racing about how this goodbye is going to go, do you 1. Stick the fist out and pound them goodbye (yes, I have done this. Keep openly judging) 2. Give them a hug 3. Shake their hand or, the big one, 4. Go in for the kill aka the kiss. This is a horrible feeling because you literally are trying to figure out what to do before anything happens, and sometimes if you are thinking too much you end up awkwardly doing something else that you didnt want to do (like half hug/half kiss on the cheek!?). Sometimes, as a good friend of mine put it, you should just take the bull by its horns and take charge of the situation.... but what if that also puts you in an awkward spot? What if he/she isnt feeling what you are? Once the goodbyes are exchanged, you usually run to your car/run up your stairs to your door and just get home as fast as you can so the first date blunders can just go away.

The "We Went on a Couple Dates and Then You Never Called Me Back Afterwards But Then I Saw You Out" Encounter
I dont know about any of you, but I feel like this one can be SUPER awkward. You are having a good time, going about your business when you turn around or go to walk to the bar and BAM you run right into this person. And you were hoping not to see them because you are still getting over the fact that they never called you back and why they didnt call you back. So now its the awkward "Oh hey, hows it going?" and the small chit chat about how you have been since you last saw each other - then you wonder do you ask what they have been up to? Or better yet, if you have had a few adult beverages in ya, take the risk of asking why you havent heard from them? THIS IS NOT A GOOD SITUATION PEOPLE! It usually makes the other person super uncomfortable, and not even consider calling you ever again. Once this happens, the excuse of having to be somewhere, or just saying "well good seeing ya" (when you really know it was NOT good seeing them) comes out and then you end up walking away as fast as you can. And then for the rest of the night you still wonder why he never called you back/what you did wrong...

The "I Just Literally Ran Into the CEO And Did Not Know What to do" Encounter
I believe this only happens to me and my very awesome, but also just as awkward, friends. You are getting into the elevator and all of a sudden you see the BIG GUY, the CEO of the company you work for, get into the elevator with you. What do you say? He obviously doesnt know you and therefore what do you say? And if he makes you uncomfortable because you consider him such a big shot, you dont want to talk because you wont know waht comes out of your mouth! Or you get so tongue-tied when you are around them that you literally cant believe that just came out of your mouth like "Wel hellloooooooo there" (in a not so normal voice because you thought they were someone else" or the cases where you make absolutely no sense becase your mind stopped working. Yes I would say this one happens to me more often than any other encounter in this blog - I get so nervous that it makes me awkward!!!!

The "You Run Into Somone/Old Friend That You Havent Called to Hang out With in a While" Encounter
Besides the previous encounter where the other person did not call you, this reason is because you have not called them. And you want to be nice and not say why you havent called them because well, there is no real nice way to say "Crap, I have forgotten about you!" Sometimes it isnt even intentional that you havent called them - life gets in the way and you just are overwhelmed with what you are doing already. But it sucks when you see this person and in your head you are going "omg, I havent called them in a while and they texted me last week to hang out and I blew them off... oh no!" So now you are stuck trying to not sound like you are making excuses as to why they havent heard from you/why you havent invited them out but in reality they are excuses. So do you make those excuses or just be honest and say "hey, I have forgotten about you I am so sorry" because I dont know what I would rather hear myself as well. At this point you usually take a mental note to call them next time and make plans so that this doenst happen again!

The "You Run Into An Old Friend You Had A Fall-Out With/No Longer Want to Hang Out With" Encounter
This one is probably the most rare one, where it doesnt happen as often as you think but there are those times that it does happen. There is that one person that you had a huge fight with, stopped being friends with and havent seen in years. Then one day you bump into each other at the grocery store and you want to be nice and just say hi, but there is a reason why you dont talk anymore. Or, the friend that you realized is no longer a good friend or a good person and you just dont want to have any association with them anymore. You bump into them one night and crap they found you. This is where its tricky - you obviouslty want no contact with these people because you dont want them back in your life. Do you avoid them all together, and be the bitch to just walk right by them and not say hi? Do you leave where you are at right away and dont look back? Or are you the better person and say hi, but make an excuse about needing to be somewhere and get out before having to catch up? Yea it's never a good thing.

The "You Just Saw Your Boss/Co-Worker  But You Dont Want Them To See You" Encounter
We all have those nights where we arent "the best" We might have had too many to drink, maybe we are somewhere we arent supposed to be - anyway, you look over and you see someone you work with. Maybe you tried getting out of work early to get the early bird happy hour deals, and hoped no one would catch you. Or, you used all your vacation days and so used one of your "sick days" to not come in the office (and played off sick) but were really healthy and just wanted to do your own thing for the day. Either way, whether you are roaming that mall shopping on a Wednesday afternoon or you are well on your way of making it an interesting night, you see your co-worker looking at you and judging. Openly judging, and you dont want to know if they are going to go back and say something to the wrong person and get you in trouble.
AS A SIDE NOTE ON THIS ENCOUNTER: I dont have this happen to me personally because 1. I actually do hang out with my co-workers and love hanging out with them 2. Dont get vacation/sick days so I take off only when I legit am sick because otherwise I dont get paid and 3. If I do leave early, I clock out early. So no calling me out about "not working and still being paid" excuse. BOOM. But this does happen to people, and you know they always need to hide under the table or run to the bathroom/out the door and somewehre far far away from these bosses and coworkers. I am quite thankful this doesnt happen to me...

So this is all I can come up with right now... am I missing any other "awkward encounters" that I should know about/I possibly havent had to endure yet?