You know how I’ve said that it sometimes weirds me out to run into people who know who I am from this site (or one of the other’s I write for) and have them sort of just pop up in my face sans warning? Well, I think I did just that at Double Door when I ran into this girl Nora. I saw her as she walked past me and a soon as I ascertained that she was exactly who she was I realized I had nothing to really say to her. Of course by then I had already opened my mouth and felt like a complete fool. And I realized how I must make other people feel when they introduce themselves to me and I just sort of stare back blankly at them.

So what is the proper protocol for this sort of situation?

I also saw this guy Harper the previous weekend at Intonation – and I’ve seen him before and we’ve had a sort of meta-meeting where we’ve both written about each other without ever actually writing to each other – and was about to introduce myself to him when I realized that, again, what do I have to say to him?

Obviously, for this (and I'm just sticking with these two even though I could pick others) example, it’s fair to say I dig the sites that belong to the two people mentioned above. So at least we have that in common. I think maybe my problem is that I’m older, and even though I’ve been floating around the Internet for over a decade it still seems weird to me to assume you know somebody through this medium alone. However someone even just a few years younger than I am probably has no problem making that leap since, for them, this particular arena has always been one within which is has been deemed viable for building social relationships. For me though that mental mindset doesn't occur as naturally which is why when folks I’ve never met before come up to me and ask if I’m Tankboy I tend to return their query with a blank look, so it shouldn’t surprise me at all when the tables are turned and the same thing happens to me.

So back to my original question; What is the proper protocol for that sort of situation?