Mixer Elixer

I went to a mixer last night. You know- one of those places where you take a bunch of people who have absolutely nothing in common- offer them cheap wine...and remind them it is all for a good cause?

Here is the problem.

I don’t mix.

I don’t mingle.

Give me a room full of friends and I will talk your ear off…..

But mingling….not so good.

I can face an audience or a class of students without a tremor.

But put me in a room with a few dozen chattering women hellbent on having fun and I turn in to a doorstop.

There are people who are absolutely fantastic at this mingling thing.

I saw one gal last night – wine in hand- working the room….working the room…group to group….

Me?

I volunteered to make the name tags when people came in the door (door being the operative word here so that I could slip out and head home at the first opportune moment- which I did.) Actually, I did not volunteer- one of the mega minglers spotted me and asked me if I would take over for her while she got a “Bev-ah –rej” and she never managed to find her way back.

Fine with me,

From my vantage point made it possible to make some observations…..

Some women were just quietly drinking- they had shown up and they were going to have their $5 wine and be done with it- seen and be seen.

Some women were frantically networking- cards and hugs were flowing like the $5 wine

The ones who got my attention were the ones who came alone- maybe for the first time to one of these things- and faced the room the same way a novice ice skater faces a rink where people are whooshing around and doing spins and leaps. She enters the room, hugs the wall the way a new skater hugs the rail and makes it to the bar, holding on to her glass of courage as though it were a lifeline.