Circles crossed, strange doors ajar

Sometimes it isn't enough to widen a social circle, but to let another person's cross your own to see the results.

After seven years of complaining about low pay, lousy insurance and incompetent co-workers, I'm tired of running down that list in any environment, much less a party or after-hours. I cross paths with people in my own department sparingly; some circles aren't meant to cross, and I see the people I want to see anyway.

Luckily, a good number of those friends work in other departments, walk in different circles, and are no longer considered just "work friends."

After leaving the wake on Friday night, I talked with a pilot, a snowboard instructor and any number of new, friendly strangers I would never encounter normally.
Other times I sat back and absorbed the dialogue running all around me, from good Christmas sales at the skateboard shop to near-DUis to flying planes.

As a professed lover of meeting new people, it's like Christmas ... two days early in this case. Strangers are also a stroke of luck when life's fortunes turn negative. I wanted to immerse myself in an environment unlike the somber, shell-shocked one I visited earlier that evening.

Go to a party stocked with strangers, then aim for the simple goal of making friends, if only for the evening and as a conversation-starter at the next gathering.