A Night of Normal

I have several thoughts and things to share about the weekend, but, as usual, I am pressed for time and just have time for a brief note about today:

I got a call around 11 AM today from one of my professors, inviting me to a professional dinner tonight with Big Famous Mega Prominent Guy that came to speak at my university today.

ACK.  I don't do last minute very well.  I have 290,832 things on my current to-do list, and did not have time for a 3 hour dinner.  Also, I had already planned all my meals for the day, and it would shoot all that to the wind.   This may sound silly, but I spend hours agonizing over each day's menu, and suddenly changing that takes some serious mental gymnastics for me.  I have gotten much better about eating in public since I started college, eating out anxiety is mostly due to the fact that I just hate not having complete control over what goes in the food.

BUT this was literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to schmooze with an icon in my field of study.  I knew I would regret it if I didn't go, and I'd look back and hate myself for choosing the ED over this chance...

So I went.  And I ate like a real live normal person.  I busted my ass in hyper-mode this morning so I could afford the time to go this evening (I actually skipped 3 classes today, which I NEVER do...it's bad when you are too busy with schoolwork to actually go to school), and talked myself down from anxiety overload about not sticking to my planned food for the day.  And the sky did not fall.  

I actually ended up having a good time.  I got face time with Mr. Awesome and with some other important university people too, and really enjoyed myself.  I can be fairly charming when I allow myself, and I felt like the night was a success in several ways. 

So it appears that I can indeed at least pretend to be a normal adult once in a while, take that, ED.