Okay, so at my work we go down every day and play ping pong. But since I hadn't played in years I was the absolute worst of the group that plays. We've played for months now and even though I've improved, so have the other guys. I've won a couple but am consistently at the bottom of the rankings. But I'm also competitive and fucking hate to lose, so last night I bought a new racket (I only paid $30 - you should see how expensive some of these things are!) and went to the Omaha-Metro Table Tennis Club to play and get some pointers.
The doors opened at 6 and they play from 6 to 10. I got there right at 6 and was the first one in. I spoke with the guy who runs it and about then people started trickling in. All told there were probably 20-30 people there. I stayed from 6 to 8:30 and MAYBE 3 people spoke with me. It's not that they were not nice people, just that they were not there for table tennis (NOT PING PONG!!) social hour. They were there to play and get better. And to get ready for tournaments. Since I am a novice, I was ignored. I could not help them improve and they were all so much better than me that they would have to seriously gimp their games so that I wasn't just steamrolled.
Were I even a little socially awkward it would have been a humiliating experience. As it stands I was really intimidated, but I'll go back just because that's the kind of shit that I refuse to let beat me. I might get steamrolled, but I will improve.