Welcome to the Hot Seat

I do not consider myself to be the best in social situations. Do not get me wrong, I am not a backwards cave-dweller who has no concept of how to carry on a conversation; but I am also not a Chatty Cathy either. But, of all the social situations that I find myself in, the one I consider to be the most awkward is the hairdressers' chair. After the "what are we doing with the hair" conversation I am dead in the water. You can tell that she is straining to come up with a topic and I am struggling to try to engage her but also not to distract her because I do not want her to chat so much that she forgets what her original task was. It is just not a fun situation. Then of course once you are free of the chair you face the next socially awkward situation of manipulating your way out of the salon without buying their high priced hair products (while also trying not to tell a lie that you "already have that shampoo" or "maybe I will pick some up next time:") Probably the only situation worse than that is the dentist asking you questions while your mouth is full of drills and paste and other horrible things. Maybe someday I will learn to do these tasks with more grace and ease, but for now, I am Miss Tongue-Tied.