The last thing in the world I would ever do is attend something of that nature. I would make up any old excuse to beg out. I am much more comfortable saying hello to a neighbor who happens to be walking by.....maybe talk for a while if it happens naturally. If it does not, your exit from the situation is easy. As an introvert, I hate the pressure at parties to always be having "fun" for an extended period of time. It feels so contrived to me.

I enjoyed reading your post. I can relate.

I was walking to the office to pay my rent friday. Ambushed on my way back home! "Hey girl!" I hear through an open window.."Come on in!". DAMN. Today I took a long way around and loved the empty walkway . So, back to my story: I got a creepy feeling, which was my cue to make a get away.. that took 10 minutes to set in. I grabbed my rent receipt and hat and said 'good bye' on my way out to my freedom. She must have expected a much longer F ing tour of her one bedroom apartment-mostly to show me every single ceramic animal that she owned.. I must be very rude, but I had to go. So on my way from her apartment I heard her say,"oh, alright then, glad to have you over, take care, see you again, have a great day, good bye". I said nothing because I didn't want to stop to reply and I didn't want to make noise to let the other (very nice lonely) neighbor know that I was there. I'm so rude.

Yes, I know what you mean. I once had a woman describe to me every single item that every single one of her family members ordered at a McDonalds. Before she was through I wondered about her sanity...and worried about keeping mine.

You must seem like the type of person who cares about crab grass! lol There are a lot of times where I can predict the topics that will arise and sometimes it's annoying but sometimes it's a relief because if I've heard the conversation before, I might have heard of some way of responding in a way other than, "uh huh" or "ah, ok."

Totally get it. I bailed on a picnic/party. Wanted to go to meet people but then decide it was not worth the torture. Just the typical introvert's dilemma.

I have given myself permission to change the subject of a conversation, if it's boring or over my head. I don't SAY that, of course. But I might say something like, "I don't know enough about (topic A) to hold up my end of the conversation, but I'm sure there are other topics that we can discuss. What books have you read recently? Or where have you traveled To?" Or a wide variety of topics that I will be more interested in. People don't set out to be boring; they are talking about something that interests them, but not you. Try to find common ground if you can.

Always worth a free meal if it is good. There is always the possibility of sneaking out and extending thanks to the host later. What good stuff did you learn about crab grass?

It's always hard for me too at parties where there are mostly strangers. On the outside, I would be "pretending" to be social. On the inside I would be saying to myself "This is such a waste of time. At home I could be doing something else productive."