I attended, for the first time, the fourth annual We Are Tigers auction Thursday evening. I’ve had schedule conflicts in prior years, and an unexpected opening in my calendar afforded Shawna and me some time to attend.
I was in the daily cranky transition phase between leaving work and arriving either home or at an athletic event, but the crankiness went away almost immediately.
First, I was hangry – that blend of hungry and angry – and that feeling was immediately tamed with a bowl of gumbo and a salad with many slices of beets. I love beets, so I was pleased. More salads should have so many beets as this salad had Thursday night.
Additionally, student athletes were serving the meals, working the 50/50 raffle table, and bussing a few dozen tables. Each kid I interacted with was cordial, and some (girls’ basketball in particular) asked if I was enjoying the evening (well done, young ladies).
My mood continued to improve as each Warsaw Tiger Athletics Hall of Fame inductee was introduced.
Who better to share their dossiers of accomplishments, and additional information about the inductees as members of their community then and now than the voice of Warsaw Tiger sports radio, Roger Grossman.
I’ve lived in Michiana since August 1996, and my 20th year in Warsaw will be 2004. I’ve been attending or working various levels of athletic events since my wife taught (1997-2008) and coached (1997-1999) here.
Although I’ve spent a few decades in the Lake City I feel like I learned a lot about our inductees, even those I’ve already read about, and heard about through radio shows.
I’ll share the best takeaway of the evening. It’s going to seem strange to you until I fill in the gaps.
I left the evening’s events not having to run through the car wash.
I wasn’t compelled to deviate from my paths to food tables, dessert tables, or to those folks whom I had to ask questions.
I have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and its link to neatness is a misnomer. Instead, there are obsessions a person has resulting in compulsive behaviors.
One of my many obsessions is worrying about not acknowledging everyone at a gathering (and consequently offending them?).
The resulting compulsion is to rubberneck the room to see if there was someone I should have greeted while there was time to walk every square inch of the room and look at the items up for bid.
In almost every case, I would be likely to find them while everyone was exiting, but I did not do that either.
I met and greeted folks in my path, and I was good with that – no meds required, either.
In fact, my wife – without me figuring out what she was doing until this basketball season after some radio broadcasts we completed – has been cutting through the crowd ahead of me so I have to keep up with her, and I guess I didn’t fiddle-fart around the open gym floor as much during post-game.
Recently, she asked (and I paraphrase), “Did the world stay in order after you simply focused on getting all your stuff to the car?”
There were several people in attendance at Thursday’s event whom I knew would obviously be there, but I continued because I realized – being a part of the Tiger athletics community – I would see them at many other events.
I can’t boil the ocean.
I had an ex-girlfriend from my high school days tell me in my senior year something like this:
“At first, I thought you felt like you were gracing everyone with your presence. Then I realized you were trying – to a fault - to be polite. Do you know what an ‘Irish Goodbye’ is? You should try it.”
I realized this is what I did Thursday night, and I looked for an article about it last night, reflecting on the evening.
An Irish Goodbye is an exit where you might, at best, say goodbye to the smaller group right in front of you at a gathering, then exit, instead of hunting down the hosts… who are still hosting and conversing with others.
My ex-girlfriend told me one of the most annoying things about accompanying me to parties was the time it took to leave because I was compelled to say goodbye to everyone.
I’ve continued to do this most of my adult life, too.
Sometimes, as Irish Goodbyes work, you might even say nothing to anyone when leaving a large gathering, and subsequently head toward the exit. I’ve learned those who know how this works usually understand.
A Jewish colleague of mine noticed what I was starting to do last fall while I was at a corporate conference almost set to leave for a long drive from the Omaha-based event.
He joked, “With a British last name like yours, I’m surprised you’re still saying goodbye because the British leave without saying ‘goodbye,’ and the Yiddish say ‘goodbye’ without leaving.”
He was unaware of the compulsion I was experiencing, but it (thankfully) reset my brain, and I found an exit, and thanked him for a very funny and fitting quote I knew I’d use the future… just had no idea when I’d use it.