Taking stock... with 3 weeks to go
NOTE: The following post will be fairly disjointed; it's a post I should have probably made earlier this week but - reality got in the way.
-As I plan my social opportunities for the future, it's important for me to realize exactly what type of environments tend to be the worst for me. In particular, as I am 99% sure I have some form of dyspraxia
based on
-how uncoordinated I am
-how hard it is for me to understand other people's speech... to the point that more often than not, I've been hearing song lyrics completely wrong unless I had the title or lyrics right in front of me to match them up! (such as "throw me down to the river" or "do the funky/fucky lady" or "I'm a cigarette" just to name a few)
-how small visual changes can be REALLY hard to detect...
there are certain environments that will NEVER work for me: in particular, dark bars and dance clubs with 'music' blaring will be the worst possible places for me to meet people. (For the record, I have tons of coping tactics in MOST settings... but dance clubs allow for none of them.)
-One of my biggest pet peeves is an overhyped hipster scene where you need to put in so much effort just to go somewhere that isn't that good. FOR EXAMPLE, today there's a "taste of three cities" food trucks event in Patterson Park I wanted to check out... only to find, when I was at the area, that
getting in required you to wait in a long line to pay a $15 fee... JUST to have the pleasure of waiting in more lines to eat at food trucks!
On the West Coast, food truck gatherings generally were easy to get to. Sure, you'd have to wait in line for the food trucks themselves and pay them for food... but merely getting into the site itself was EASY! (By contrast, this is an event where you're paying more than the cost of a food truck meal JUST TO GET INTO THE PLACE... *barfs*)
(maybe this type of pet peeve against that type of scene is generational - of the 'pre-85' vs 'post-85' variety?)
-What I think I fear the absolute most about Arlington is the thought of an environment which pretty much is a Baltimore clone... except that everyone is a Washington Nationals fan instead of a Baltimore Orioles fan (i.e. an environment that is somehow even HARDER for me to get along with than Baltimore).
-I also have NEVER done well in environments where one's social setting was essentially restricted to a small group (high school clique, graduate school socialization exclusively among a small group within the program)... and therefore think I'll need some sort of fluidity in my social environment. (e.g. groups that meet once a month might be better for me than ones that meet multiple times a week).
-ALSO: when a social setting is indirectly tied to a work environment that I'm NOT part of, things can be a lot worse as well. (EXAMPLE: so much of the Baltimore scene can be tied to Johns Hopkins; e.g. the majority of people in the UCLA alumni group are current Hopkins students. So while I'll only see them at the occasional UCLA alumni events in the area, they may see each other often - even on a daily basis if they're in the same program!)
-Of course, there's the issue of "living in one place and working in another" when trying to build a social community... my HOPE is that it's easier in the DC area simply because many people work all over the region for the government so I'm not alone (while what I do now, living in Baltimore City and working in suburban Anne Arundel County, is surprisingly rare.)
-More importantly, I do better in scenes where moving around/making new friends is par for the course as opposed to "cling to the friends you have while in high school or college, stay where you are/give up opportunities so that you don't lose the ones you have... only to STILL find them drift away one by one as you age and they move on in life."
-I DO have plenty of things worth trying/a few options to look into... but... I'll need MUCH more time and energy than I've had these past two weeks!
FINALLY: I haven't even mentioned the dating scene yet... but I would at least like to think the prospects will be better when I move...
-As I plan my social opportunities for the future, it's important for me to realize exactly what type of environments tend to be the worst for me. In particular, as I am 99% sure I have some form of dyspraxia
based on
-how uncoordinated I am
-how hard it is for me to understand other people's speech... to the point that more often than not, I've been hearing song lyrics completely wrong unless I had the title or lyrics right in front of me to match them up! (such as "throw me down to the river" or "do the funky/fucky lady" or "I'm a cigarette" just to name a few)
-how small visual changes can be REALLY hard to detect...
there are certain environments that will NEVER work for me: in particular, dark bars and dance clubs with 'music' blaring will be the worst possible places for me to meet people. (For the record, I have tons of coping tactics in MOST settings... but dance clubs allow for none of them.)
-One of my biggest pet peeves is an overhyped hipster scene where you need to put in so much effort just to go somewhere that isn't that good. FOR EXAMPLE, today there's a "taste of three cities" food trucks event in Patterson Park I wanted to check out... only to find, when I was at the area, that
getting in required you to wait in a long line to pay a $15 fee... JUST to have the pleasure of waiting in more lines to eat at food trucks!
On the West Coast, food truck gatherings generally were easy to get to. Sure, you'd have to wait in line for the food trucks themselves and pay them for food... but merely getting into the site itself was EASY! (By contrast, this is an event where you're paying more than the cost of a food truck meal JUST TO GET INTO THE PLACE... *barfs*)
(maybe this type of pet peeve against that type of scene is generational - of the 'pre-85' vs 'post-85' variety?)
-What I think I fear the absolute most about Arlington is the thought of an environment which pretty much is a Baltimore clone... except that everyone is a Washington Nationals fan instead of a Baltimore Orioles fan (i.e. an environment that is somehow even HARDER for me to get along with than Baltimore).
-I also have NEVER done well in environments where one's social setting was essentially restricted to a small group (high school clique, graduate school socialization exclusively among a small group within the program)... and therefore think I'll need some sort of fluidity in my social environment. (e.g. groups that meet once a month might be better for me than ones that meet multiple times a week).
-ALSO: when a social setting is indirectly tied to a work environment that I'm NOT part of, things can be a lot worse as well. (EXAMPLE: so much of the Baltimore scene can be tied to Johns Hopkins; e.g. the majority of people in the UCLA alumni group are current Hopkins students. So while I'll only see them at the occasional UCLA alumni events in the area, they may see each other often - even on a daily basis if they're in the same program!)
-Of course, there's the issue of "living in one place and working in another" when trying to build a social community... my HOPE is that it's easier in the DC area simply because many people work all over the region for the government so I'm not alone (while what I do now, living in Baltimore City and working in suburban Anne Arundel County, is surprisingly rare.)
-More importantly, I do better in scenes where moving around/making new friends is par for the course as opposed to "cling to the friends you have while in high school or college, stay where you are/give up opportunities so that you don't lose the ones you have... only to STILL find them drift away one by one as you age and they move on in life."
-I DO have plenty of things worth trying/a few options to look into... but... I'll need MUCH more time and energy than I've had these past two weeks!
FINALLY: I haven't even mentioned the dating scene yet... but I would at least like to think the prospects will be better when I move...