Common Akwardness

There is a guy at my work who for the duration of this article will remain nameless. Why don't I want to mention his name? Well, it's partially due to wanting to allow him to remain anonymous since he didn't ask to be written about. I respect anyone's desire to remain anonymous as much as they can. It's also mainly due to the fact that I don't know his name. This is the crux of my current issue. Somehow, in the two years that I've worked at my current place of employment, we've gotten into the habit, when we pass each other in the hall, to nod a greeting and say, "Hey." This isn't in and of itself a bad thing. It would seem to be common courtesy to greet someone that you know. The problem, however, is the fact that I don't know this gentleman as evidenced by the fact that I couldn't tell you his name if you offered me a million dollars and a trip to the San Diego Comic Con. It's gotten to the point where it's just rather awkward for me. I don't know him, yet I feel obligated to greet him. I'm not sure what to do at this point. It would be very rude to always look like I'm deep in thought and just avoid eye contact. I can't just avoid the guy in the hall all the time. He has the cubical next to a guy on my team with whom I collaborate quite frequently. I've thought about going up to him one day and just introducing myself. "Hi. My name is Jeff and we've been nodding to each other for months now, and I thought we should probably get to know each others' names." Really, when it comes right down to it, I don't have the guts to do something like that. I don't know why. Maybe it's the fact that I'm a very shy man. I'll wait a moment while those of you who know me stop laughing. Done? Okay.

It actually is true that I am rather reserved in certain circumstances. For instance, whenever I call in to a radio show (it's happened twice), I get very nervous. It's not that I can't speak in public; I actually consider myself a rather good public speaker. For some reason, in that specific case, I get nervous. Such is the case with my nameless co-worker. I'm not able to bring myself just to go beyond our awkward "comfort zone" of nodding and saying "Hey." I wonder if he feels the same way. I wonder if he's sitting somewhere writing a blog posting about the idiot at his work who hasn't said anything more than "Hey" for months, and he's dying a bit inside each day because no one will go beyond the monosyllabic with him. Just to reach out and be a friend. His mood today: melancholy.

I probably should just go for it and introduce myself, but I fall back on and take comfort in the fact that he hasn't yet either. Why does common courtesy have to be so uncomfortable? *Sigh*