Still recovering from my trip to San Francisco, I attempted to take the 7 train out to Queens for a party thrown by the Manhattan news-blog Gothamist, only to find that the 7 wasn’t running at all between the two boroughs. I ended up taking the E and walking to the Long Island City Water Taxi Beach, many blocks through industrial parks and run-down housing, arriving two hours late.
Not like I made a stellar effort to talk to anyone, but it seemed as if most of the partygoers had arrived in groups or already knew other people there. I have no problem talking to strangers on the phone; in fact most of my meetings in San Francisco were secured with people who I’d never dealt with before and many of whom who hadn’t even heard of the publishing company I work for. And at our networking events, I don’t have much trouble mingling. I don’t know why social events like this party tonight would be any different, other than there’s not a commonality of background. I mean, I could approach someone at random and start talking about real estate, but that could come off as just weird.