meeting and greeting gestures

i read this as you like to shake hands as well as women and men. which would be kinda coolio. i dunno, i like to hug my friends. but usually i just shake hands and/or kiss. the problem is that depending from region to region people either give one, two or three kisses.

i RRRREALLY hate limp (?) handshakes. urgh.

i've never kissed a man hello/goodbye - i wonder if that would ever become 'acceptable' for straight men in this culture, at least for those not affected by shyness.

i think it's going that way. before i went to university my male friends and i had an ironic 'handshake' thing, but since then it seems to have been replaced with actual handshaking. with women it was only at uni that the whole kissing thing took off as greeting/farewell gesture.

i tend to do a half-assed, generalized 'peace and fucking' type gesture, hard to render in word, because i say goodbye to everyone simultaneously and don't get into details.

I don't kiss straight men, but I kiss all my gay friends.

that's interesting (if you're straight)

Because straight guys (including myself) get self-conscious kissing each other, and my gay friends will kiss anybody.

http://digilander.libero.it/wolva86wb/heroes-ironman.jpg

Find it really difficult to gauge whether the situation requires nods, or smiles, or handshakes, or kissing-on-cheek (and if so how many times).

I'm uncomfortable with the kiss on the cheek usually unless said cheek kiss is from an old or dear friend. Doing this routinely among people I hardly know kind of grates on my nerves. I always have to steel myself if I know this will be happening a lot in any given event.

I got used to this living in France but it took a while and I've somewhat reverted to American mores in this regard. Kissing women whose name has hardly registered itself in my brain still seems a little forward here in the U.S. On the other hand, it's much easier in France, 'cause after a while you realize that people will feel odd/rejected if you don't.

It's strange, 'cause it has occurred to me that if I meet a woman at, say, the beginning of a party, I'll shake hands. If she and I, or she and my gf, or she and a friend of mine have a good time together, talk at length, etc... there's a good chance she'll get la bise on my way out.

I hold up my palm quite a lot, esp. from a distance or saying goodbye to more than one person.

I find it fascinating how people differ so radically in what they feel comfortable with, in this area.

xpost

I'm totally not comfortable with kissing, hugging and etc.

Ideally, I would give everyone a Mick Foley style Thumbs Up, with toothy grin. I don't have the confidence for this though.

one friend of mine, not a guy I know really well, he shops in the shop a bit and will always do a sort of hiphop type handshake (not to sound like John Major), this usually takes me by surprise.

occasionally I am ambushed by strong feelings of not wanting to hug/kiss someone as I say goodbye, or decide either way, maybe if I don't know them. I think it's ok to just say goodbye.

I relate to what Michael said, if I get along with a girl I've just met well, I might hug or kiss her at the end of a party or whatever.

Recently some of my friends made a big deal of a friend of mine kissing me on the lips to say goodbye, apparently they said if they saw their gfs kissing someone on the lips, not the cheek, they'd be very suspicious.

This seemed kind of weird to me I must say.

The only time I shake hands with anyone is the first time I meet them. After that it's just weird and awkward to do it more than once. If people insist on kissing me, then I'll go along with it, but it's not really something I'll initiate unless I really feel comfortable with them.

Joe's family, half of them did the one-kiss on the cheek thing, but the other half of them did the two-kiss on each cheek thing. I NEVER figured out which one was going to do which and always ended up getting someone in the nose.

I wonder if that would catch on...

I never shake hands unless someone else initiates it, because it's far more formal than I think i would ever want to be in a position to be.

What's the fistcrunch, nickalicious?

This is harder than it sounds.

prof·fer
tr.v. prof·fered, prof·fer·ing, prof·fers
To offer for acceptance; tender.

With certain friends I do a Viking-style armshake where you grab the others forearm up near the elbow and say things like "May our paths cross again in the halls of Valhalla."

where did the double t-rex hand wave that girls do come from? it's like a "no wait you got it all wrong!" gesture before someone gets shot in a movie but instead of them backing up desperately they're walking forward happily.

I don't know what you're talking about but I like the T. Rex reference point.

maybe it's a california thing? "hello!" "hi!" (t-rex double hand wave)

I do the t rex double hand wave but I am a t rex