bernerbrau wrote:
I bump into my boss in the breakroom today.
Boss: "Good morning." (Friendly, smiling)
Me: "Morning." (Rinsing out my coffee mug, trying to return the gesture)
Boss: "How's it going?"
Me: "Umm..... I am... OK." (Instead of returning the volley, I pause abruptly, racking my brain for evidences to establish that I am, in fact, OK.)
Boss: .......
(Boss notices that my wallet is on the counter, since my RFID card for getting around the office is in it)
Boss (congenially): That is a huge wallet. I hope you don't sit on that.
Me: Hmm? Oh. No. It goes in my front pocket.
Boss: What is in there?
Me: A bunch of stuff I don't really use. (I open my wallet and begin rifling through it for specific examples.)
Boss: ...
Me: Well, here's a business card that I'm pretty sure I don't need...
Boss: .......
Boss: (pulls out his wallet for comparison) Here's what mine looks like.
Me: *smiling and chuckling nervously*
Boss: *returns the nervous chuckle and leaves*
Another one, when I was visiting in-laws with my wife a couple weeks back, my brother-in-law mentioned something about squirrels destroying their garden. Attempting to continue the conversation, I say, "yeah, we get rabbits gnawing on the vegetables back home." Conversation comes to a dead stop, and I can't for the life of me figure out why.
Damn I hate small talk.
I can help but chuckle at this...mainly because I find myself in the same sorts of situations.
Today I've interrupted people in conversation with non-sequitors on more than one occasion. I've walked into walls. Also, my coworkers and I got together for lunch to send off someone who's starting a new job: I was silent almost the whole time, and I left a little early because I was starting to get really anxious from too much social interaction. I stimmed the entire time, too.
EDIT: Just realized I've been listening to the same song on repeat for the last two hours.