“Hugs”

I don’t hug. 

I mean, I do willingly hug my kids and my husband.  But they are the exception.  There are people I love dearly, people who have burst into tears right in front of me and all I can do is pat them on the arm when I should be hugging them.  I suck at comforting people, clearly.

Hugging just doesn’t come naturally to me.  In fact, most of the time after I hug some one I have to go wash my hands.  I don’t know why.

There are times that I am comfortable hugging people, like at BlogHer last year.  I even hugged Marinka, before I remembered that she doesn’t hug, either.  Beforehand, I imagined us being the two stiff non-huggers in the crowd, but lo and behold, I got to Chicago and hugged more people in one weekend than I had in my entire life.

There is something about getting to know people but only seeing them once or twice a year that makes me feel ok about hugging, and to even *gasp* initiate personal-space-barrier-breaking physical contact.

You’d think, then, that I’d be throwing out hugs left and right on twitter since the sentiment is there but I don’t actually have to have anyone up in my personal space. 

{As an aside, this is one of the things I love about Twitter, blogging, and social media in general: I can socialize till my heart’s content without having to wash my hands between conversations.  A life saver for neurotic little me.}

But, no.  I’ve thought about tweeting “Hugs”, and goodness knows sometimes people seriously could use a good squeeze when they are in the thick of something difficult.  But I go to type the word and *cringe* *hand wash*. 

Today, though, I gave my first twitter hug.  I couldn’t even type the word “Hugs” like a normal person.  I had to type out “Sending you a huge virtual hug!” and I’m pretty sure that on twitter, wasting all that character space is probably against the law. 

Any minute now, the twitter police are going to pop up and revoke my account.

And then where will I be?  Lost and drifting, alone in cyber space with no one to tweet me “Hugs”.