The Night Out

The night out went reasonably well. Neither he nor I had panic/anxiety attacks.

The gathering was considerably smaller than I had guessed at, there were just 9 of us. I was concerned that this would create more pressure for my companion but it seems that it didn't.

I had spent some idle time in the afternoon pondering how I would introduce him to my acquaintances (and I couldn't recall if any of them had met him before, and would know who he was). He too had been thinking about how this would go and we discussed it on the way to the BBQ.

We settled for 'This is X, my friend'. If they wanted to know more they could ask. All the other introduction possibilities just didn't feel right, to either of us.

I'm sure my acquaintances were surprised to see that I had taken someone with me, and I'm sure towards the end of the evening some questions were put around whilst we were both out of the room. But no-one asked either of us, and I haven't been asked since either.

I'm pleased that it went well - for my own sake, considering that I rarely go out there is always some anxiety these days.

I'm pleased for him too, it was a pleasant relaxed evening, he got out of the house, mixed with some new people and he cooked prawns and fish on the BBQ for the first time ever.

And I'm pleased for us .... going somewhere together turned out to work ok; I wasn't really sure how it would go or how it would feel. It felt fine.

The Future
We might do it again sometime, though that might not be for quite a long time as neither of us have much of a social calendar.

There are particular gatherings that he goes to which he wont invite me due to history with the other people; and that's fine.

Neither of us are particularly into going somewhere just for the sake of going out.

It's more about just having someone to go with when a suitable event arises.

Ice Breaking
It's good to have broken the ice in that regard. And I'm pleased I asked him too as it had been a consderable time since we discussed this as a possibility and I was thinking that perhaps he thought I might never be going to ask him to go somewhere with me. So now I'm sure he would feel comfortable with asking me to accompany him somewhere.

Breaking the Ice can be tricky at times, but this time it was fine.