overcome my shyness

Today I went to FNM, which is basically a tournament where I play an extremely geeky game and there are usually only one or two other girls in the room besides myself. I had a lot of fun.
The great part about it is that every single person who shows up is a nerd, so I don’t really have to try to impress anyone. I think the fact that I don’t have an Adam’s apple is impressive enough to most of the people there. I like it. It’s a no stress situation. I really suck at the game, and I usually end up being in last place, but I have been slowly coming out of my shell and socializing with the few people there who aren’t douchebags. There are even some people who I expect to see every week and sometimes even remember my name.
Like I’ve said before, my main issue is that when I am around other people my age, I act ditzy. I don’t know why. I had this problem in the past there, and I think a lot of the guy there got a lasting impression that I’m one of those “cute dumb-girls.” I hate that about myself. This week I just reminded myself before I went that I should be myself, and I was a lot better. I’m really proud of myself, I think I should get an A+ for effort.

When I am around people I don’t know, I act really stupid and ditzy. I’m a very intelligent person, I just give off the impression that I don’t know my brains from my bum.
This is one of the reasons why I have trouble making friends and most of my real friends are online. I think it also might be corelated to me being able to keep a job.
Above all, I hate people in real life. I’m very friendly and outgoing when I am online, but when I first meet new people, I almost always make a bad first impression.