Me? Negative? That sucks!

At dinner with a friend last night, she told me that her first impression of me was that I seemed "negative". I still don't really know what that means and would rather had she said "bitchy" or "mean" because those words I understand. It's not the first time in my life I've had people tell me that their first impression of me was not stellar. I had one woman in our church tell me she thought I looked "stuck-up". This is the curse of the shy person and I've dealt with it my entire life. The thing that makes it worse is that my natural resting face has a look of contempt. I can't even count how many times someone has told me to "smile" or "look happy". I've even practiced my resting face and have tried to make it look more friendly but I just feel like a freak, plus it takes a lot of effort to contort my face that way. I like smiling and Ryan tells me I have a beautiful smile so it's not like it's not possible for me to look naturally happy. Karen told me that she's going to start hugging people more and while I think that is insane because hugging is just not right with all that touching and all, I do think it would be good to have a happier look about me. So my new goal is to whip out the "happy face" more. Watch out world!

Crazy Happy Shea!
Hmmm...Stoned Wheat Thins

Not so happy but not quite the "contempt face" yet.
I think we know who is unhappy in this picture.
BTW I made my skirt.

Getting there. Yes that is my Grandma who gave me none of her tall genes.

There it is! The face that has made complete strangers think I'm negative or stuck-up.