Social or not social?

Is it bad that our most exciting evenings involve "dressing up" (read: not wearing a hoodie but a real sweater) and going to a movie in the real theater (Did you know Gateway theaters will give you a cup of ice or water if you ask for it? I'm never going anywhere else. Ever.), coming home at 8:30 and Josh going straight to bed while I watch What Not to Wear and read a great book? Maybe we're not that exciting.

We wound up sitting on the front row. In some movies that might be OK, but the worst movies to see in the front row are:

The Bourne Ultimatum

And

007. Quantum of Solace.

I know because I had to sit on the front row of both of these movies. Bond wasn't as bad because we were at Gateway and their front row (while totally sucking) isn't as bad as most front rows. 

Why did I have to sit on the front row for Bond  and Bourne  and not for Mamma Mia? Probably for the same reason I get to accompany Josh on business trips to Wyoming, but not to Chicago. 

Before the movie started, the other front row dwellers were awfully chatty and I realized (as I got incredibly uncomfortable) that is has probably been months since I spoke with a stranger. I just don't do it. 

I wake up, kiss my husband goodbye and go to work with people I know. Then he picks me up and I go home. 

When I go to the grocery store I say 'hi' to people as I try to squeeze my cart past theirs, but it's not like we have a conversation.

I go to church with people I mostly know, and usually I just sit by myself or by Josh anyway, so no conversations there.

Where else do I go? Nowhere. At least not without Josh who is all too willing to talk with strangers for me.

So my concern is, am I that crazy lady who holes up in her house and never comes out? Am I the mystery person on the block who everybody knows, but nobody knows. I kindof think so and here's how I know:

• Josh knows our neighbors. All of them. Their kids. The husbands AND wives. He knows what time they go to work and when they come home. He knows what they do for a living and sometimes even what their names are. I know we have neighbors because on Sunday night and Monday morning the streets are LINED with trash cans. 
• Josh knows our old neighbors and recognizes them when he "runs into them" at Home Depot. I knew we had old neighbors because their yards looked nicer than ours.
• At a ward party I took my sister to because Josh was busy and we already bought the dinners, my sister and I snuck out before the awards were given. Everybody had dressed up (it was a murder mystery dinner) and they were giving out awards for like best costume, most in character, etc. We left just before that to get back to her baby and husband. I was told on Sunday that I got the "most coming out of my shell" award, or something like that. I didn't know I even had a shell to come out of, but apparently I do.
• In my normal course of blog-stalking, I stumbled on Rachel's blog (who I only know because of book group) and apparently she is linked to every single person in the ward. Turns out there's this whole huge blogging community in our ward that i had no idea about. And everybody is friends with EVERYBODY. Now I'm kindof lurking in the shadows of all the blogs and trying to gracefully introduce myself to all of these people's blogs, slowly. 1 at a time. Baby steps.
  

This combined with the fact that I am a crazy plant lady pretty much seals the deal. Jamie and I had a crazy neighbor upstairs who never came out of her house, and we were all scared of her. Darlene I think was her name. Anyway, I'm scared I'm turning into Darlene, only I have a social husband who everybody knows.

So, I invited us to a "cool kids in the ward" gathering on Sunday. What's that you say? it's rude to invite yourself to somebody else's party? Yeah, I know. It is. But kindof necessary, plus we're cool kids so I don't think they'll mind. I'm intervention-ing (yes, I know it's intervening, but intervention-ing sounds cooler. don't you think?) to try to save our social life. I don't wanna be Darlene!