Baring my soul

I'm not a hugger. That's it, plain and simple. My mom is not, my dad is. Kerry probably would like to be. Shaun isn't, Emily is like Kerry, but has no one to hug, except Dad and Kerry. Anyway...
Dad says it's from mom's side, the Japanese don't show emotion, that kind of thing. If you go to a function with my mom's side, you will rarely see anyone hug. If you do, it's probably really the Heimlich Maneuver It's not that we don't like each other, but we just respect our personal space or we smell bad and don't want to share it.
I will almost never instigate a hug. It's just not in me (okay, I did once, but it was only because the huggee looked like she needed one and even though she was pretty much a stranger at that point, she's become a good friend and I'm crediting it to my totally awsome hug, she's not a hugger either). I don't know why, maybe I was hugged too much as a kid, or not enough, or too hard. It could be my very sensitive nose, all kinds of scents bother me, I can tell if you had onions for lunch, if you follow the Atkin's diet, or pretty much anything else. I couldn't sleep for days because a friend's dog peed in our house, we cleaned it, but I could still smell it. I can tell when the dogs are getting an ear infection before they even know. Smoke pot, I can tell. I can smell a gas leak, when no one else can. It grosses me out. The dr. says I'm hyper-sensitive, he probably just made that up. Anyway...
My long story short...I am working with huggers!!! Big huggers!
I can guarantee I won't tell them I don't hug, they are super sweet girls, I don't want to hurt their feelings. I will practice, I will suck it up, the dogs won't know what hit them. I never know where to put my hands, how much to lean in, and I certainly don't inhale. I know that if it were George Clooney, Harry Connick Jr. or even Kerry, I would find a way, I would know where to put my hands and oh, heck, yeah, I would inhale. Oh, I do hug little kids and babies providing they don't smell like poop, milk or vomit.