Awkward Encounters

We’ve all been there. The weird looks, the nervous hands and all that phony gibberish; life is bound to give us awkward encounters. Unless you’ve been a hermit your entire life or have extensive memory loss, awkward moments will take place. Feeling like running out of some place or pretending you didn’t see someone 2 inches away from you and staring you in the face are known and understandable. We can all relate. Be it your boss, an ex-girlfriend, ex-wife, a not so acquainted acquaintance or your significant other’s parents or family, finding these people is often surprising and weird to deal with.

I don’t know about you, but being the pigeon head that I am I usually walk into a bar, restaurant or whatever minding my own business. Instead of scanning the place for known faces, I much rather take the phone and get directions to where my friends are. Besides, my eyes are not at their best. I don’t want to stare eternally at someone with a question mark face all over me. And so, I have avoided awkward encounters. Thank you disoriented personality traits.

However, there are those who are not that lucky. In general, we will always bump into someone with whom its awkward to come across. Either you don’t like seeing them, you don’t know who they are or the place in which you are meeting makes the whole thing awful. A friend of mine used to hit this strip club more often than he would like to admit. One day he came across his girlfriend’s dad. Being this an awkward situation they both shook hands and my friend asked to buy him a beer for courtesy’s sake. Since the old man said no, he insisted politely one more time. Those few seconds were enough for a tacky older woman to approach the girlfriend’s dad and ask him for some “honey”. The man was there with another woman. My friend said goodbye in the fastest and most polite way possible. Awkward.

I would bet most of us have been in the “ex-girlfriend meets new girlfriend” situation. First of all, never call you girl “new”. The best way to go about a situation like this is keeping your generic Viagra wet dream database shut and introduce the lucky ladies. Keep your cool at all times; introducing your ex by her name only and letting her know who your girlfriend is will make things at least right. You want to give your girl her place and avoid the ex to make nasty comments like “are you dating anyone right now?” Fill in your girl about who your ex was after you have politely and quickly said goodbye. Works 97% of the time. If the ex-girlfriend gets touchy-feely, stop her dry. Unless you and your current partner were looking for a threesome third, you have no place working up your ex in front of your girl.

Last but not least, the “boss in real life” encounter. Unless you are a true kiss-ass, you are unlikely fond of your boss getting inside your private life. However, knowing about what goes on beyond office walls never ceases to trigger that curiosity bug in all of us. And the same goes for him and every other co-worker. These people you seldom see outside the work environment. Bumping into each other in the “real” world can be as scary or interesting as discovering aliens are real. In the worst of cases, you can say hello and make it short. If in company of loved ones, introduce them, exchange short conversation and move on. Don’t mix work and pleasure.