My name is Caroline, and I am awkward.

I know, I know. You miss the "old people" stories. The "dirty old men" stories. The "Caroline" stories. I have heard it all. I promise, the newness of the gluten free-ness will wear off. But also, I have been working more with kiddos and in management lately... I have not been in a nursing home for a while. But one thing will remain... I, Caroline Martin, will always find myself causing awkward social situations. I really feel like it's the crux of who I am. :)

This past Saturday night, my neighbors threw a block party. Uncertain of their "party habits," I invited several of my OC friends. Which was a good call. So we are in my backyard with a fire pit (provided by my neighbor) and several of my neighbors' friends are streaming in and out of his house. One guy in particular, Carl, was very talkative with us girls. It was evident he thought a lot of himself. (Guys, fyi, we girls have radar for this... and it's typically a turnoff). So he sat and talked to several of us for about 30 minutes. He then went back into the neighbors' house. About 10 minutes later, a new group of people came out of the neighbors' house, none of whom I had seen before. So I started introducing myself to a guy in a grey sweater...

Me:"Hey, I'm Caroline... I live here."
Him, looking at me dumbfounded: "You're kidding, right?"
Me: "No I live here."
Him: "It's me, Carl! We just talked for 30 minutes. We were building a rapport. What in the world! You're kidding, right?
Me: "Oh..... no."
Him: "Are you serious?"
All of my friends: Doubled over in laughter around us, unable to save me at this point.
Me: "You changed clothes! You had a black polo on!" (Stop talking, Caroline, stop talking now...)
Him (clearly used to girls attending to him): "But I have a FACE! Hello!"
My friends: "You don't know her, or this would be not at all offensive and terribly hilarious to you."
Me: "I am so sorry. I promise I was paying attention to our conversation!"
Josh Henderson: "Carl, let me tell you a story that will put this in perspective. One time, Caroline tried to convince a Doctor that she had syphilis..."

That's when Josh proceeded to tell the group of strangers about my syphilis story. If you don't know the story, please read it before assuming I actually had syphilis. I will say that my friend Katie said "Caroline, he needed to be brought down a little. Don't feel too bad." And the awkwardness that is my life continues...