Friday at Southern Comfort got a lot more crowded. By now, the sight of a massive group of t-girls seems more normal than not…

I spent a while at Starbucks, finding out how far behind in my emails I had fallen and trying to write up some of my experiences.

I was hoping to get some exercise and some shopping in, but no dice. To be honest, I just didn’t get up any desire to shop. Maybe it was sensory overload, I don’t know, but the urge just wasn’t there.

On some level, I am so overwhelmed that I don’t know what I feel. I haven’t been able to catch my breath. There are about 800 attendees at Southern Comfort, and meeting everyone is a large part of the event.

Truth be told, I am not much of a social butterfly. I want very much to make new friends, but meeting so many new people in such a short time, remembering their names and stories is a big challenge for me.

And, more to the point, I am not one who collects friends just to be able to say I have a lot. I want to really get to know some people and if I can make a few good friends, that would be priceless.

Everywhere I turned I found attractive, interesting and nice people. Plus, I am interested in hearing people’s stories because it helps me understand this phenomenon a bit better and understand myself a bit better.

So, I made the effort to make conversation.

That’s hard for me at the best of times, but I also discovered that this group presents special challenges.

They say that if you want to facilitate conversation with someone, get them to talk about themselves. Well, if it works generally, it is exponentially more effective among trans women… who, it must be told, are often difficult to stop from talking about themselves.

The unfortunate consequence of that is that once you get them started on themselves, they are very forthcoming but will never ask you anything about yourself or your experience – probably for fear of having you go off in the same way…

I don’t mean to generalize – of course it doesn’t apply to everyone – but it did apply to a clear majority of people I talked to at the conference. Oh well, their loss; I am richer for hearing and knowing all these interesting stories.

Of course, I shouldn’t be so presumptuous as to discount the possibility that they simply didn’t find me interesting enough to care about my story.

But self-involved or just disinterested, there were so many people to meet that, even so, I’m sure I will get my handful of enduring friendships out of this event – and that’s all I could ask for!