Jane Austen or Emma?

Today, I judged a book by its cover.

There is a young, semi-cute (in an unconventional way, but I'd date him) basketball coach at the middle school where my mom works. I work the clock at some of the games. Today, I was early, and I read while I waited. I always keep a book in my purse.

The coach walked by the table where I was sitting and said, "Whatcha reading?" I stopped and turned the book so that he could see the cover. He looked, read "Jane Austen" off of it, kind of nodded, and went on his way. I said something like, "yep," and continued reading.

I jumped to two conclusions. One, that he didn't know who Jane Austen, anything about her, and had probably never heard of the book I was reading, which was Emma (in fact, because Jane Austen's name was in bigger print than the title Emma on my book, I assumed that he thought "Jane Austen" was the title of the book). And two, that he didn't really care what I was reading, was just making mindless conversation, and thought I was a geek for carrying a book around with me and reading it when I had a few minutes to kill.

Later, after I got home, my mom asked me who the coaches were. I described this one to her, not knowing his name, and she said, "Oh, he's a seventh grade English teacher." I felt like a fool and a hypocrite. I assumed, because this guy is a basketball coach (and maybe a little bit because of where he works), that he would not be interested in books. Come to find out, he was probably genuinely interested in what I was reading simply because he's interested in books and reading. I myself am into both sports and reading, but I assumed that no one else would be.

I must learn not to be such a judgmental idiot. If I had been more open-minded (and the kicker is that I tend to think of myself as a really open-minded person) and just...friendlier to the guy, I might have at least gotten a literary friend out of the conversation (I don't know if he's married...I suppose I could've gotten a date also if he's single). I don't have very many friends here that I can talk to on that level.

I need to work on being friendlier to new people in general. The problem is that I'm scared around them (that I'll make a fool out of myself somehow), so I just tell myself that I don't want to meet them and I don't open up. I need to get over that. I have nothing to lose when I meet people.

Damn.