@cyberlyra Gosh, this lands like a pallet of books. This illuminates the "weird frictions" I sometimes felt when interacting with folks in the USA.
Sometimes I get the thought "what a weird thing to say..." It's making more sense if they are thinking "What's this guy *up to*?"

On the other paw, if they ignored "madly off in all directions" in my introductions around the table that's a little bit "on them".