you are now leaving the comfort zone

this occasionally revealing (like now) blog notwithstanding, i am a shy person. i much prefer the sterility of digital disclosure to soppy, bawling face-to-face encounters. (and bawling there will be, because i am a person who cannot hold her eye water.)

i am uncomfortable meeting new people.

forced into an unavoidable situation i have two responses: hemorrhagic conviviality wherein i share waaaay too much or awkward monosyllabic withdrawal. either option leads people to conclude that i am surely a freak.

i'm used to that.

however, i plan to blatantly disregarded this empirical evidence of my social gracelessness.

spurred by a latent desire to pad my c.v. be a good Christian and galvanized by oh, the joys, i searched volunteermatch.org to see if there was an opportunity that wouldn't paralyze me and might make use of any old body my humble and limited talents.

lo and behold, i was presented with more than 300 opportunities within 20 miles of my home. it was a bit overwhelming. i paged through and found 3 opportunities i would like to try.

one is recording textbooks for the blind and dyslexic and another is a literacy program. they both deal with an issue that is very close to my heart. i firmly believe reading is the foundation for everything you want to achieve in life. (unless you want to achieve the status of, say, a strung out crack-head, or something similarly enchanting.)

the third is delivering food on Thanksgiving. this is the one that's a real stretch for me. (but i thought it would be an excellent way to spend the morning since kisu is working. double ka-ching.) first off, it's DownTown, an area i am not at all familiar with. but a bigger obstacle than that? i have to initiate. i go to the person's house. i knock on the door. i am expected to visit with them. this is a program geared to benefitting seniors and i've always related well to people older than myself, but still, i really suck at small talk. it's a good thing i'm taking pooka. she's a handy conversation piece.

STRANGERS. eeek!

stay tuned to see if i chicken out how this all works out and how pooka reacts. i feel it's time she learned a bit about charity; how she has benefitted personally and how she needs to give back.