I think my least favorite part of social interaction is greeting someone. There’s way too many variables there which will either make or break how the rest of the interaction will go. There’s the verbal greeting, which needs to be specifically tailored to person, place, and event. Screw that up and you’re up shit creek. I also hate the physical greeting, to which there is two phases. There’s the wave, which either gets your partner’s attention or acknowledges their presence, and then the “handshake” that solidifies the concept of the greeting. I really hate that part because it usually comes after the verbal greeting, making the number of disastrous combinations grow indefinitely.

Like this one time when I tried to high five a friend at a funeral after saying “How are you doing? I’m sorry for your loss.”