Overdosing on nice, and how to make new friends

Recently we had a full weekend of social gatherings. I got to meet my husband's maternal uncle with family for the first time, quite fascinating seeing as we've been together for almost ten years now, but better late than never I suppose. I was a tad nervous as to what kind of people they would be, but not really worried that they wouldn't like me or anything like that. It developed into quite a pleasant afternoon, but it still took a bit of work to be my most polite and nicest self and be chatty and open, it always does, at least for me.

Directly after that we went on to dinner at D's paternal aunt's place where, apart from the aunt's son and his family, one of D's uncles and his wife were visiting. Without making any judgement on classes or social segments of society I will admit that the unwritten rules on behaviour are a lot more apparent here than I am used to. So the "nice and polite" continued for the rest of the evening. I was quite tired once we got home, and not just because it got rather late. I think I may have exhausted my shallow well of openness at the first visit and then having to keep up the work for another five hours was maybe a little much. I wouldn't be surprised if they noticed...

I don't know if all this is brought on by age difference or if it has something to do with expectations about looking good for family. Feel free to philosophize with me on this.

The evening before visiting all these relatives we were invited to a housewarming party that some friends were having. All partygoers there were around our own age, but apart from the hosting couple had I only met one guy before. Even though I normally would have felt the urge to hide behind D and not reach out to perfect strangers one bit, I ended up having a marvellous time and to top it all off pulled a stunt that I hope will pay off.
At the end of the evening when this certain couple was about to leave I literally jumped them asking for their phone number. A bit flustered I hurried to say that we had really enjoyed talking to them during the course of the evening and would like to stay in touch, and "how on earth do people make new friends these days anyway!?". They looked a bit surprised but then handed over a mobile phone for me to insert my own number for them to save. Later when D and I were on our way home I looked at my phone to see a message from this couple, giving us their number along with a thanks for the evening's company. It felt really good that I had asked them, it's not like I have anything to lose.

*is a tad smug*

Take care all!

keah