Lin: What were you planning to do tonight?

Orb: I don’t know. Why?

Lin: Mark finally called and he wants us to go hang out at the lake.

Orb: I guess we have to go don’t we? I want to see him.

Lin: Well, did you have anything planned?

Orb: Just the usual: eating, sitting around, watching TV.

Lin: Well, guess what? He and his girlfriend decided to get married on the way down here, and they are getting married tonight! We don’t have to get dressed up or anything.

Orb: Married?! Tonight?! Well, now we really have to go. What time?

Lin: 5 pm.

Orb: [panic attack]

Yeah, so, it looks like as soon as my brain fully engages (I was in the middle of a nap when he called), I will be having a full-blown panic attack about getting myself ready to go see a friend I haven’t seen in years and watching him get married to someone I have never met in a roomful of people I probably won’t know. It’s like social anxiety overload.

As usual, the focus of my panic is what I am going to wear. Oh sure, we don’t have to get dressed up, but there will, no doubt, be photographs, and I wouldn’t want to be immortalized in someone’s wedding photos looking like a geek or freak, no matter how casual the event. Then I’ll start panicking about having to be sweet, charming, intelligent, and non-insane in public.

Good thing I took a nap. Now I better go take a shower and do my hair and begin having a proper panic attack about this.