Friday, December 12, 2008

Hi, I'm Tina and I will invade your personal space

Have you ever been in a situation where you're meeting up with friends or even acquaintances and someone hugs you hello? Well, I am that person. I'm a hugger and I'm sorry that I inappropriately touch you.

Sometimes I just can't help myself.

I am always aware of it, but sometimes not until after I hug. For instance, my son had a birthday party a few weeks ago at the local roller rink. The kid loves to rollerblade. It was an exciting day for us. We had been planning it for a while. My son had been talking about it ENDLESSLY. I was so thrilled for him and for his friends to have a great time together. Along with roller skating/blading, they got to play 2 games of laser tag! A dream come true for 11 year old boys, frankly.

I guess it was just the excitement, although I inappropriately hug people all the time. Anyway, I ended up hugging 2 moms and, even though they hugged me back, I could tell they didn't expect a hug at the roller rink. BTW, they were friends of mine. One lady lives in our neighborhood, so her son and my son are frequent playmates. The other lady used to go to church with us. I'm saying that I wasn't hugging complete strangers. That makes it better, I suppose.

Actually, my inability to control my enthusiasm doesn't just apply to hugs. This week my son and I were out running errands and stopped at Sonic for lunch. Sitting in the van, waiting for our food, we both noticed an SUV parked in Blockbuster's parking lot directly opposite. On the front of the SUV was one of those silver, decorative plates with WV on it. Even though we often see WV plates or stickers or even flags, the excitement of it never wears off. I still wanted to track the driver down and swap WV stories. Then I remembered the looks on the faces of those I have hugged and realized that might be going too far.

Self-control. I'm happy to meet you.

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