Inside Out 2 and concessions

Today was the first full day of the last XOXO Festival — an “experimental festival for independent artists who live and work online.” On the schedule: Introductions, attendee-led meetups, indie media discussions, gaming and then some.

I arrived out of sorts.

I’d trouble logging into the Slack community to understand the schedule fully and felt like I failed the assignment already.

Cursory chats with folks fueled another fear: I’d forget names and if we’d met before — which I did, right off the bat!

The thing I couldn’t wrap my head around was that you’d be hard pressed to gather a kinder collection of folks. But there I was, fretting.

Oh, and it wasn’t because of health concerns. I’ve not been to a conference that employed such thoughtful Covid precautions. The event was split between indoor theater seating with required masks, and outdoor tent viewing of livestreams (with sections that encouraged masks). Everyone complied and then some. It was GLORIOUS.

Anyway.

I decided to take a walk to reset my headspace and somehow ended up 30 minutes later sitting in a nice movie theater by myself for a showing of Inside Out 2.

This turned out to be excellent as this sequel about anthropomorphizing feelings introduces new emotions that include Anxiety and Embarrassment.

It was lovely. I walked out a little lighter, with a better understanding of how to identify and compartmentalize negative emotions.

Afterward I popped over to a Thai BBQ joint called eem for a super late lunch / early dinner — which turned out to be a sweet time — the place is very popular and I didn’t have to wait.

So enjoyed a lovely cocktail, recommended dishes (Field Greens Salad with tamarind dressing and the White Curry with Brisket Burnt-ends) and gave myself a little extra grace.

I’m still getting my socialization legs sturdy after a dang pandemic. It’s okay to tap out.

In addition to the movie, one of the conversations from earlier inspired me to listen to a Hidden Brain episode about how to make interactions with others more rewarding. (A tip of the hat to Kim for the recommendation.)

I missed out on some stuff this day, but I also found some good.

And most importantly, I felt prepared for the next day.