Confessions of a rambling introvert

Most everyone has had one of those dreadful foot-in-mouth moments, when you say something with the best of intentions (or perhaps not) but it comes out wrong, or at the wrong time. I seem to excell at a milder but more frequently occuring version of foot-in-mouth, that being Ditz Rambling.
I am an introverted person around those I do not know well, and tend to blush easily when I say something stupid or am embarrassed. Most of my life this meant that I followed the adage "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
In college I started speaking up more, when I knew answers to questions and was excited about what I was learning. As a teacher, I learned how to stand in front of a class and pretend that I had thick skin and could not be embarrassed, and I also got better at conversing with strangers when forced to meet new people or work in groups with other teachers. Working as a checker definitely improved my skills at making small talk, when I had to come up with something to talk about with the unfamiliar person standing in front of me while I handled their groceries.
With a multitude of orientations and such last week, I found that although my tongue has been loosened, I am still an introvert. Now that I am back in the kind of academic environment where I fit better, I am excited about meeting new people in my field of study and discovering what makes them interesting. This leads to Ditz Rambling, because when I meet someone interesting I tend to ask lots of questions and spin off of their comments in many directions, either because I am excited to find something in common, or because I am not exactly sure what to say so I just ramble on. I am usually embarassed later, because I realize I may have been talking about myself too much, or trying too hard to prove I have something in common with somebody else, and ended up sounding like a ditz.
For example, at a Fine Arts TA meeting, I found myself seated at a table full of interesting people, with questions and conversations going across the table in several directions at once as we all tried to get an idea of who everyone was, where they came from, what they were studying, what instrument they played, etc. etc. etc. It was exciting but overwhelming, so I think my mouth took over for my mind at several points, and I'm afraid that first impression was a bad representation of myself. I am not a ditz, but when I am nervous I talk too much and end up feeling like a ditz regardless.
The antidote for these regrettable episodes is a good conversation, a welcoming smile, a friendly greeting, or some other chance to slowly uncover who another person really is, and to be genuine and thoughtful in the process of discovering and being discovered. For example, I was present at a small, informal gathering of professors and TAs in a public place, where the conversation flowed freely around the table and I was able to just listen for awhile and absorb what others had to say (and also to determine which people I preferred to listen to), until the time was right when I could add something to the conversation. It was particularly rewarding to hit on a few specific topics of interest with one professor, and the dialogue was one of those really satisfying moments of "releasing butterflies" like I have mentioned in earlier blogs. I hope that this chapter of my social evolution sees the transformation of introverted nervous rambling into more restrained, composed, and confident first encounters with people, so that I have less ditziness to release and more butterflies, a few gems to leave behind to provoke curiosity, and fewer reasons to blush.