Basic social interaction makes me want to die

Me and Glee; Me and small talk. Yeah, that's a twofer.

So the Gleecap of the Super Bowl episode is to come. Really. I'm working on it. It's already way to freaking long and I'm roughly a quarter way through the episode. I got a bit burned out on it, since I don't love Glee the same way I love Doctor Who and I got burned out on Doctor Who too so... yeah.

But I want to talk to you about banal conversations and how they are completely useless.


Do you know how many conversations about the weather I had today? Me either, but I can tell you that it was way too many. What is wrong with just being silent? I have to converse with customers. I can't just stand their awkwardly. It's fine when we actually have something to talk about (it's surprising how many random things you might have in common with strangers), but when it's just conversation for the sake of conversation it makes me want to claw my eyes out.

Social norms sort of drive me crazy sometimes. I don't want to talk to random strangers really. Except when I'm drunk (just ask most of the people that were around me at The Decemberists show), but then it isn't just stupid small talk. I talk to strangers when I've been drinking because I have something to say to them. Like "What does your shirt mean?" or "Why are you the redshirt?" It's not always shirts, but those were the first two things that popped into my head. It's fairly random and I like to think it gives a person a mildly interesting experience along the lines of "Who is that stupid person talking to me?" But what happens at work is completely different.

Maybe it'll be better in the summer. No. I take that back. I foresee a lot of "I can't believe how humid it is" conversations, as opposed to "It's so cold out! But they say it'll be colder/warmer tomorrow." There is an annoying conversation for every season.

I say we toss this out. Nobody is this boring! Why do we pretend to be? Who decided the acceptable small talk topics? Why can't we pick new ones? Let's talk about... well I don't know, anything else? I've gotten more prone to just talking about whatever I want to with customers. If they're buying a book I like I'll talk to them about that (had an interesting conversation about Hunter S. Thompson today), but beyond the whatever-your-buying conversation starter, I like the randomly diving into some out there topic. I have never had a bad reaction to this. I believe it's because it's difficult to shake off the small talk pleasantries mode. It's almost a free pass to be insane. If I have to deal with crazy customer rambling, they can deal with mine. Want to talk to me about your grandkids? You're going to listen to what I have to say about ... god my brain is off, but whatever random thing is rattling around inside my head at the moment. It's real life Crazy Katrina Rambling you guys, and it's glorious.

Anyway, hopefully I'll get the Gleecap up tomorrow. If not you can deal with it. God I'm sort of confrontational today. It's probably just the exhaustion.

(I just remembered my addiction to explaining the internet to customers. If you ask me how to do something, I will tell you to go to wikihow. If you ask me what it is, I will use the word wiki. If you ask me what a wiki is, I will have an aneurysm and then miraculously recover and explain it to you. That's all you get. I hate old people sometimes.)