36 Questions Part 1: Dinner Party

Yesterday my mom and I were talking about The 36 Questions That Lead to Love, based on the study by Arthur Aron et al. In case you haven't heard about it, the idea is that you can make yourself fall in love (or at least develop a strong sense of intimacy) with someone, just by asking each other these questions. There are three sets of questions which are intended to get more personal as you go. The funny things is, as I was reading through them, I felt like I would be fairly capable of providing decent answers to most of them. The ones that I feel like I would have the hardest time answering were the (supposedly) easier ones. In fact, I think the very first question would be the hardest for me; it goes "Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?"

I honestly have no idea whatsoever who I would want to have as a dinner guest. The reason for this is, as you all know, I am terrible at talking to people. So no matter who I invited it would be certain to be an awkward and uncomfortable situation. In fact, there have been times in my life when I was practically in that situation with people who I would have chosen as answers to that question, and I managed to completely waste those opportunities.

If I had any sort of social skills, probably the person I would pick would be Gene Baur, the founder of Farm Sanctuary (who, by the way, I will most likely be writing about on Friday due to the fact that he recently appeared on the Daily Show). I love Farm Sanctuary, and he has done so many great things for animal rights, and I feel like I could learn so much from him. Here's the thing though, I actually did have dinner with Gene Baur back when I interned at the Watkins Glen shelter! He just happened to be in town, and took all of the interns out to dinner. There were only (I think) six of us, so there was plenty of time for each of us to talk to him. But, of course, I didn't.

There was also a time, a few years ago, when some friends and I went out to eat before going to a concert and ended up sitting right next to the band we were there to see. The lead singer, Conor Oberst, is still one of my favorite musicians and at the time was my absolute favorite. I assume most people would have at least said something to them, but again I didn't. I didn't feel quite so bad about that one though, since no one else did either, but still.

So yeah, the person I would want as a dinner guest would be any random person who I might actually have a decent conversation with.

Hooray for awkward dinners.