Taking a poll

Okay, I’m going to take a poll. I tortured myself most of the day yesterday trying to decide what to do about a certain situation, and rather than playing the back and forth debate in my head over and over again, never reaching any resolution, I’m going to take it to the wisdom of the internets.

There is this woman. Ah, you knew that’s where I was headed, didn’t you? We’ve had several occasions to meet, but never much opportunity to talk. The first time we met, she blew me off. The second time, she was cordial, but the occasion offered no real opportunity to talk. The third time was her birthday party, a big open house kind of deal that I went to with some other friends. We actually had more opportunity to talk there, but still not much. She was friendly. She’d finally made the connection that I was the new woman in town that a mutual acquaintance (a guy I met at the boy party my neighbor had awhile back) had told her about. She led a workshop at church yesterday and I got myself out of bed early to go to it. I shyly sat down at a table a safe distance from the front. She was talking to several people when I walked in, but she saw me and waved. I waved back and sat down.

Now, any normal, thinking person would have seen that as a clue to walk up and say hi. Not me. I couldn’t think of anything to say. You who are of the shy people know what I’m talking about. Small talk is terrifying to us shy people. So, I thought to myself, I’ll wait until the presentation is over and then I can go up and ask her a question. Trouble is, I worried about asking her a question through the whole presentation, so I didn’t pay very close attention to it. And, when it was over, I had nervously drank so much coffee that I was very uncomfortable and had to make my way to the restroom post haste. When I got back, some friends caught me in the hallway outside the room where the workshop was held, and while I was visiting with them, she left, waving to me as she walked out.

I admit it. I’ve googled her. She is an academic who teaches at a state university in another city. Her publication list is a mile long. She’s also a leader in the local community, and frankly, all of that intimidates the life out of me, while at the same time fascinating me. While she was presenting yesterday, I had a new thought about the whole thing and asked God or the universe or whoever it is I pray to these days, “Help me see the person, not the image.” Yeah, it didn’t work. I’m still intimidated, but it did at least give me a glimpse into what might be a good thing for me to concentrate on.

So here’s the question. What do I do next? A. Email her and tell her I liked the presentation and see how she responds. B. Call her and tell her I’m curious about some things she’s doing in the community and was wondering if we could get together sometime to talk about it. C. Wait to see if our paths cross again. D. Something else.