Recently I visited a friend who is a textbook extrovert, and it was exhausting -- for me, not for her. Not only was she babysitting her 15-month old granddaughter for the weekend, certainly a full-time job, but she had invited eleven guests for dinner and was not the least bit ruffled. In fact, she actually thrived amid all the chaos! As for me, being one of the dinner guests I had to gird my loins for an evening of constant interaction with other people. Trying to figure out exactly where my loins are located and then how to gird them took some time but I finally got it done and found that the other guests were delightful, considering. Still, it was taxing for me to be "on" all the time since my default switch is "off."
I was not always an "off" person. In my earlier years I was quite outgoing, and I can still pass for an extrovert if I put my mind to it. But despite all the chatting and smiling I am often slumped in a corner of my mind, reciting my mantra or perhaps girding my loins. I believe this to be true for many people, which is why sometimes you'll get that glazed expression from someone you're talking with.
(FYI: To "gird" means to prepare for a military attack, but more loosely the expression has come to mean readying oneself for any kind of confrontation.)
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