Oh right right. That's the sticky point... finding smarties who you don't have to join a club or do big social stuff to meet. Hm... This will take some thought... Like, how large a group of people does it take for you to get jumpy? Could you do a small book club? Maybe an activity like a river cleanup day where you don't have to hang out in the group the whole time? What's an activity that you like enough to feel confident in a larger group of people than you'd normally like being around? Do you get down with that whole games/role playing thing so you wouldn't have to be 'you', you could be someone else for the day? I'm just throwing out ideas here. I keep forgetting where you're at, but in the Northeast, the Appalachian Mountain Club hosts all sorts of nerdy-outdoorsy activities like birdwatching hikes and that sort of thing, super chill crowd, often a little on the stuffy side, but in a good way, no pressure to contribute unless you're comfortable. Stuff like that. Meanwhile, this place IS good practice. I'm a lot more socially confident since joining the site, that's for damn sure. Bartending helped a lot too, just forcing myself to interact with a lot of different people, including total assholes. That's the hardest part, and once you master talking to a total asswad who you'd rather just jump across the bar and throttle, you can pretty much talk to anyone...