So a week or two ago I went to the continental market in Belfast (which is amazing by the way. You have to go and try the dutch pancakes. And i don't want any of you going "eww market food? how unhygienic" Shut up and enjoy those glorious pancakes) and I met somebody there I knew. Well I say met, she snuck up behind me and said "It's James!"
Emily King and this guy she was with, I think his name was Sam, walked up to me and we had a wee chat and then parted ways. That's not the bit that bugged me. When Emily introduced me to Sam I shook his hand.
This is not something I am in the habit of doing. It's a very grown up thing to do. I'm not very grown up at all. Not even a little. And that little act of maturity has plagued my thoughts ever since. But what am I supposed to do otherwise. I'm a hugger kind of guy but you can't hug random strangers. I've tried. They scream. Usually the word rape. They yell, the police come, I explain, we laugh, they give me an criminal record, it's all good. So yeah it'd be weird if I hugged someone I hadn't met before.
However it makes the situation awkward if all you do is say "Hi" and wave when he's standing 4 and a half feet away (oh yes, I measured. Just kidding. If you believed that then you're weird). And so I went for a handshake.
It was also awkward. As I'm not in the habit of hand-shaking, I didn't know how hard to squeeze. Too tight and I'd seem like an ass, but too softly and it'd be creepy. Plus there was the whole do we shake up-and-down like in the cartoons or do we just grasp hands for a millisecond then part.
Oh the complexities that rule my life
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