I inwardly cringe as I walk up the steps to the door.\u00a0 Just inside I am met by a large fellow with a round, ruddy face.\u00a0 He smiles broadly, \u201cWell hey there, Doug, how you doing?\u201d and sticks his hand out.\u00a0 I wonder for a moment what would happen if I told him how I\u2019m doing \u2013 but immediately dismiss that.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen it before. I\u2019d tell him about my concern and that would open the door to a rebuttal involving a litany of atrocities that make my ailments seem penny-ante indeed. So I shake his hand and say, \u201cFine, just fine.\u201d\u00a0 I deliberately leave off the expected, \u201cand you?\u201d\u00a0 We will just leave that door closed.\u00a0\u00a0 We smile at one another and move in divergent directions.<\/p>\n
This exchange is repeated a half-dozen times before I locate a spot that is the slack-water of the room where I can be present, but out of the way.\u00a0 Not hiding, but not easily accessible either.<\/p>\n
I watch the crowd and marvel at the ease with which they can chatter on about nothing.\u00a0 Oh, some are updating someone else on their family life or whispering gossip about someone they all know.\u00a0 One is holding court over a group as he lauds his latest business accomplishment.\u00a0 Most are exchanging commentary on the weather, politics, or sports.\u00a0 Typical party chit-chat.<\/p>\n
It occurs to me how much more I\u2019d rather be at home with my dogs than here.<\/p>\n
Then a plain-looking woman with bobbed hair and a warm smile steps into my bubble of self-preservation and says, \u201cSo, how are your dogs?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bemused, I smile and am tempted to start telling the tales of their adorable exploits; but unwilling to be rebuffed with a curt \u201cOh, I see someone I need to touch base with.\u00a0 Nice talking with you!\u201d as she moves hastily away, I smile back and say simply, \u201cOh, they\u2019re fine, just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
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I expect her to say, \u201cThat\u2019s good.\u201d and move on, but she doesn\u2019t. She asks about one by name and inquires about the results of his surgery.\u00a0 I supply a brief summation.\u00a0 She probes for detail.\u00a0 Soon we have a conversation going and I\u2019m chattering away like the rest.\u00a0 She tells me about her dog, we compare notes on several issues of canine care \u2026 and before you know it we notice that the crowds are drifting toward the door: time to leave.<\/p>\n
We exchange final pleasantries as we too exit and head toward our cars.<\/p>\n
On the way back home to my pups, I think, \u201cThat wasn\u2019t such a bad party after all.\u201d and am grateful to the one person with enough gumption to drag me out of my shell for a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I inwardly cringe as I walk up the steps to the door. Just inside I am met by a large fellow with a round, ruddy face. He smiles broadly, “Well hey there, Doug, how you doing?” and sticks his hand out. I wonder for a moment what would happen if I told him how I’m … Continue reading “Fine, Just Fine”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[100,38,58],"class_list":["post-15419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-behavior","tag-communication","tag-relationships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20873,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15419\/revisions\/20873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}