December 8th, 2007

Our department holiday party is next week. I don’t think we will be going, even though half of me wants to go.Here is the dilemma. On the one hand, I love going to these things. I find them not only to be fun, in and of themselves, but it is a great way to get to know the other people in the department that I don’t usually come into contact with. However, when going into such a social situation, landscape is everything. I am not talking about the arrangement of the tables and chairs, mind you. Instead I am talking about the arrangement of social bulkheads.There will come a point in the evening where I will have exhausted all possible conversation fodder with the professors. At such time, I will need to socially retreat to social spaces were there is not such a limited supply of fodder.

There are select TA’s and nonTA graduate students where our social connection does not need conversation fodder to exist in comfort. They would be the social bulkheads to which Meredith and I could retreat.  However, each of the members of this select group will not be in attendance. They either have other holiday parties to go to, or will be traveling out of state by the time the party rolls around.

Given all of the above, Meredith and I would be left with no socially defensible space in which a good time could linger once all lines of TA/professor conversation have been spent. As such, we have sought out time with Holly and Brad as an alternative. We had spoken about getting together before Christmas a while ago, and this seems to be perfect timing. Not only is it great to see them in and of themselves, but as an added bonus, going and seeing them gives us a great “out.” There is now a family function that we are going to instead.

I am not relationally paranoid, I swear. I do not over think social and relational situations, I promise.

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