A few shy/introverted friends of mine like to go to board game playing events. One nice thing about these kinds of events is that there's a lot of structured interaction through the games, and there's an obvious thing to talk about. In my experience, this takes a lot of conversational pressure off and you can be yourself a bit more. And go easy on yourself! Try to enjoy the company of other people without pressuring yourself to "make friends", whatever that means exactly.

Looking on meetup, here's a couple over your way (I'm in NYC, so I can't vouch for these)

http://www.meetup.com/silicon-valley-tabletop-games/

http://www.meetup.com/Peninsula-Board-Games-and-Drinks-20s-a...