Ditto all of this, Dave. When I was a kid, I was always told -- by my parents, other relatives, teachers -- that I wouldn't get any fulfilling experiences out of life if I didn't "put myself out there," with the implication that there was something inherently wrong with me. My official "blossoming" (as my mom calls it) was in high school when I was a band geek, and was mostly because I was interacting with the same group of people every single day, and we were like a big family. If there were parties, I tended to stay pretty quiet and listen to people, but I also got good at faking extroversion (mostly at social events); however, it involved so much physical effort that I would need to lie down in a room by myself with the lights off in order to recover. This still happens today.

And, like you, I tend to think of WisCon as my big social weekend of the year, but the 2006 con was so big and full of so many people that I couldn't help turtling. At the Ratbastards Karaoke Party, I was reduced to near-silence (the move to the bigger room really messed with my head); Tim Pratt came up at some point and tried to start a conversation, but I couldn't utter much more than "'sup," and felt really bad afterward. The reading that we did at the coffeeshop that weekend made me want to run and hide because it had attracted so many people.

And I'm assuming you've read "Caring for Your Introvert" by Jonathan Rauch, but if not, here's the link.