Branching Out in Fits and Starts

I've been doing some new things lately. Going to places I haven't been, hanging out with and meeting new people, and trying some new methods creatively (the story I'm currently writing features a character named Melba. Don't ask). I figure that, since I didn't move to a new place after finishing college, I need to find ways to delineate pre- and post-graduation. Yes, I realize I've been out of school for a while now, but sometimes I'm a little slow to arrive at fairly obvious realizations. At least I'm starting to figure it out now, right?
Anyway, I'm beginning to rediscover little quirks and tendencies I have that haven't been visible to me for a long time. Since I was so lucky to find a great group of friends in college, most of whom have stayed in New York after graduation, it's been very easy and comfortable for me to remain in this little zone of familiarity. So, because I've been going out to different sorts of places lately and feeling less secure or entrenched in the familiar, I've remembered how shy and/or awkward I can be when confronted with winning over someone new - seeming funny, charming, or just normal. It's almost as if I've been hibernating in the same cozy cave for the last five years or so and have lost the ability to interact with people outside.
I don't want to give the impression that I'm socially retarded. I'm not (or so I hope), but it does feel like a certain skill set I used to have has grown a little rusty. So I just need to give myself a particularly annoying piece of advice - sometimes the right thing and the hard thing are the same thing. Wow, I think I saw that on a candy wrapper or something. Pathetic.
In less whiny and self-absorbed news, I am currently stuffed into a sardine can of a Megabus on my way to DC for the weekend, which will be spent at the Comedy Central rally alternately restoring sanity and keeping the fear alive. I'm pretty excited, and I'll post the photos I take of the excellent signs and outfit choices that are bound to occur.