The New Kid

Ok so I have moved. I'm in my new place, and I was afraid it was going to be hard but it was better than I expected. This I have talked about.
Here is the thing. In the beginning everything was great, I had made this whole change, I was meeting tons of new people, everything was new. It/I was a novelty.
The novelty has worn off.
The thing about me is I am a sarcastic person. Not everyone likes/gets sarcasm. I have learned this throughout my life by being seen as mean or initimidating. So many people have told me that when they first met me they were intimidated by me, or even afraid of me. Also add the fact that my stance of choice is arms folded, AND the fact that I'm shy. I get it, I understand the first impression I make.
That being said, it takes me a long time for me to be comfortable enough to come out of my shell.
So back to being the new kid. I have been really open to meeting new people lately, I've had to, I've thrown myself into a completely new place where I know no one. Luckily I have been invited to a lot of BBQ's and parties and such, and I go, but I stand there quietly... arms folded talking only when spoken to. WHAT? That is not me! I am not that girl. I am a hoot! I am the girl telling stories and making people laugh with my tales of clumsiness and blondocity, often using some sort of accent.
Right now I feel trapped. I go to activities and want to talk to people, want to tell jokes, want to be comfortable enough to just talk to anyone, but I can't. How does one overcome this?
Prime example. At my place of employ for the first 10 months I worked here, no one knew me. People thought I was super quiet, with no personality. People were afraid of me. I did my job in silence. Then I switched departments and met a girl who is super outgoing and crazy and she pulled me out of my shell. That's also around the time I started this blog. People heard about it and started reading it (it used to be a really funny blog, if you haven't read from the beginning I recommend you do that) and I found out my now friend asked another girl, "Did you know that she's funny?" Now I'm known in the office for being silly, crazy, funny... I'm known to not be the quiet girl I was. That took me 10 MONTHS!
I do not want to be where I'm at for the next 10 months not knowing anyone. Not being myself. Plus I'm only under contract for 6 months, so it's possible that the entire time I live here I'll be stuck? No! I refuse.
I am getting more comfortable, and I am meeting new people, but I'm still not totally being myself, I'm still being shy. I need to knock that off. I need to learn how to not be shy anymore. There's gotta be some self-help books out there on that right? I'll do some research.
To summarize, I hate being the new kid.