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small talk

i hate it.
does anyone actully like it? you know the hi, how are you? what is new, comments on the weather ( really! who knew I'd actually be bringing up the weather one day)...junk you have to get through to get to the real stuff. and by real stuff i don't necessarily mean anything of substance. i just mean the comfort level of real conversation. like when someone you haven't talked to in a while, or someone you usually don't talk to on the phone calls you. you know there is a reason. a purpose for this call and just want to skip the crap and get to the point. that is rude, however. rude? why? why is it considered rude to not waste time. this is part of the reason i have finally embraced texting. to skip all that and get to the point. human contact, schmontackt.
i am raging about small talk because i find myself in it alot these days. see alot of my life is new. new but in the same spot. a new school that i love, but still havent quite made friends at. people to eat lunch with yes. people i know by first name. people to play practical jokes with. people to share coffee with. people to borrow change from. but friends not quite. this distinction is easy. there is still small talk.
the next new i find myself in is a new church. reluctantly at a new church. you see last year i felt some urgingings to try the big Methodist church on the corner, by my school, O's school, close to Shaun's work and only a few miles from our house, rather than the 20 minute drive to the church and people we love. after much prodding. you know the recurring thoughts that you can't just continue to push away kind...i talked to shaun about it. i thought he'd disagree and that would be the end of that. see God, I tried. he was fine with it. crap. we put it off. God, temporarily seemed content with later after things get settled in the new job for awhile. but then not so content and later was now. we were pushed, and seemed to have landed in a good place. but currently still a new place filled with small talk. i am, i am from, i am married to, my son is, i work at, i went to school, blah. do you know this person, etc. actually truth be told we are so new that there hasn't even been enough of those conversations yet. so let's get on with it. let's talk about the weather, what we do and the price of gas so we can get on to the important stuff....like your coffee order.

Comments

Alyssa said…
I guess I fall into the "rude" category because I go straight to the heart of the matter I'm calling about. No small talk. No catching up. At least not until the matter at hand is settled. Maybe that's why everyone thinks I'm a telemarketer when I call.
January 29, 2008 at 7:30 PM
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