Being on your best behaviour

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When you're with family, workmates or friends/acquaintences, do you find yourself on your best behaviour?

My wife tolerates my aspieness, and so I'm pretty comfortable around her. But this weekend we had her sister come to stay and we spent a good deal of the time going around with her. The whole time I felt like I was walking on eggshells, being on my best behaviour, but ultimately failing miserably. It started off OK - she'd recently been in hospital, so I asked her how she was doing, responding to her answers with more questions, etc. Great! But it was all a bit too much effort for me, and I found myself lapsing, saying those dread words "Did you know that..." leading into a monologue about something arcane of no interest to her or my wife. I realised what I was doing and shut up. But after a while they started asking me why I was so quiet! I sort of quipped that I talk alot of nonsense alot of the time, with the usual "Oh no, of course you don't" response. When we got home I went to bed and left the girls to chat in the living room. I just lay there, worrying what sort of impression I was making, the anxiety making me shake and hyperventilate.

I have two wishes: I wish I could either be 'normal' when it comes to interacting socially; or I wish I didn't care about how I acted, didn't conduct a post-mortem of the situation after every encunter, usually with a negative verdict.

Do you feel the pressure when you're out and about? How do you feel afterwards? Are you a worrier, or are you thick-skinned enough not to worry - and if so, how did you develop your thick skin?