I Hate Small Talk

Okay, so hate is a pretty strong statement but I seriously dislike small talk. The worst version of course is running  into people unexpectedly in public. Most of the time I’d rather pretend to not see you than seek you out and chat. Hear me out.

So you run into an old friend you lost touch with some time ago and you say “Hi! How have you been?!” And instead of saying:

“Well I got married two years ago to a guy you don’t know in a city you didn’t know I had moved to while I got my masters in a field you didn’t know I had gone into. We moved back recently and have been trying for a family but found out we are infertile and are devastated by this but are trying to pick up the pieces and move on. ” 

They say:

“I’ve been good how about you?”

And instead of saying:

“Remember that guy I married senior year? Well he turned out to be not a great guy and we got divorced, but it paved the way to my husband. We have been happily married for eight years and have two great kiddos. They frequently drive me crazy, but we are so happy with our lives we decided to foster with hopes of adding to our family!”

I say:

“We’re doing great!”

Because you know, we’re at Costco and something else that bugs me as much as small talk is people congregating to chat in the walkways at Costco. It may be because I’m awkward at the bumping into people chatting so it just annoys me but either way, move on! But I digress. Small talk is just as awkward for me  when I know the person well. If I run into my best gal pal at the store I want to catch up on the latest (even if we talked earlier that day) but the the Costco aisle (can you tell I spend a lot of time there?) isn’t the best place to do that so we just exchange friendly, but less awkward, pleasantries and move on.

My need to connect on a deeper level with people may have something to do with my being a stay at home mom who rarely gets a word in edgewise around my children and crazy dog but is that really so wrong?

Now as most of you will probably recall (if you’ve had the luxury of an awkward unexpected encounter) I still make the small talk, but I’d love to ACTUALLY chat with you so feel free to hit me up for a cup of coffee and we’ll really connect.