A Very Merry Unbirthday

I think I'm getting a bit bored. Not with the project itself (that would be very sad; I have such a long ways to go still), but with talking about it. People ask me about the project very frequently if they know about it; people who don't know about it comment on all the reading I appear to do. Thus, I spend a surprising amount of time talking about my reading habits.

Now, I did actually bring this on myself in many ways. I received advice from a fellow introvert, who told me that the secret to small talk is to choose two things about yourself that you are willing to talk about, share those all the time, and then people won't notice all the things you don't want to talk about. Just be fully open on two things, then try to switch the topic to the other person, and you are set. He strongly and repeatedly encouraged me to adopt this habit; his advice has proven surprisingly effective, perhaps even too effective.

The list project is the perfect candidate for this sort of thing: because reading is a solitary activity, you can use it all the time with everyone. If you go with your roller derby habit, for example, you can't use that with the people with whom you do roller derby.

I suppose the trade off of being a bit bored is worth it, though, to avoid talking to people about all the things I prefer to avoid talking about: why I moved to DC, when and why I became a vegetarian, my childhood, my teen years, what I did last weekend, my tastes in TV, movies, and music, the (four) stupid things I've done after consuming alcohol, my experiences with road trips, my plans for my life, my "personal life," my amusing medical problems, and what I am thinking right in this moment when you caught me zoning out. Especially that last one. I never give a straight answer when people ask me "what are you thinking," unless it's in a brainstorming meeting or something.