Comfort Zone

Friday night I was asked to step out of my comfort zone. Well actually, I wasn't given much choice- there was no asking involved. And I vowed revenge, but I changed my mind on the way home.
Lee Kolbert from Palm Beach area and I are on Twitter. She wanted to plan a get together for all those at FETC that were Twitterers. I then won a party for 100 people at Howl at the Moon, but it had to be on Friday. We tried to get our Twitter Network to attend, but they'd only let me have Friday night. Most people had to leave on Friday night.
Now I'm a wall flower by nature. My first school dance was when I was in 7th grade. It was sponsored by the student council, but my homeroom candidate didn't want to work the dance. She wanted to dance. So I worked for her. I loved it. I was able to talk to everyone and not try to dance. The next year I ran for a student council office position and that meant working more dances. I have no rhythm, no moves and I'm too self conscience. So when Lee wrote that it was my birthday and I had to go up on stage and do the hokey pokey- well I just wanted to go crawl into a corner somewhere or in the wall. Especially since I forgot to pack clothes to go out in and I had my work pants still on and a drab shirt. My hair was horrible and I just wanted to hide. Nope. They shone a light on me. I was doing okay until they told us to put our hands on the piano. I was done.
But on the way home I thought about how many times I asked teachers to step out of their comfort zone and try technology in the classroom. Most of the time it turned out okay and the teachers started checking out the laptops on their own and planning technology infused lessons without me. I know once I had a teacher who felt okay with me there, tried it on her own and ended up in tears. The computers were acting out that day being extremely slow, pop up ads took over 2/3rds of the computers, and our firewall seemed to have failed her. She vowed never to use technology again, and I couldn't seem to get her back in the swing of things with a helping hand.
My parents tease me - and so did Dick the former Illinois DEN Manager- about me being a disgrace to my heritage. I'm Italian and Irish. I should have a party spirit somewhere and not only the wall flower seeds. So I'm not going to get revenge (as if I could) on Lee. I'll just try to be prepared next time to leave my inhibitions at the door and just have fun.
Well maybe not all the inhibitions.