some post-vacation meditations ...

#1 -- 5:30 was scheduled considerably earlier this morning than it has been in the past. Gotta ask somebody what's up with that.

#2 -- I came home to absolutely beautiful new flooring ... and an incredibly filthy house. I plan a cleaning binge on Saturday. Something about cleaning empty rooms is quite empowering, so I'm rather looking forward to it.

#3 -- O'Hare ... something about that airport seems to inspire flight delays. I think I may plan to avoid it from now on!

#4 -- I've been thinking about mundane conversation -- particularly mundane phone conversations.

I don't do them well. I can remember hating talking on the telephone from my earliest experiences with it. In elementary school, one of my friends used to love to call and chat after school, and I can remember handing the phone off to my mom so I could take a break. (Since my mom's "uh huh" sounded pretty much like my "uh huh" ... I could run to the bathroom without any real interruption in the conversation.)

Now that I answer the phone at work, I find I like the phone even less. Calls always seem to come in batches, and interrupt my train of thought in what I'm working on.

About the only time I find myself looking forward to a call, it's from someone who lives far away who I don't see in person. Even then, I'm desperately searching for something interesting to talk about!

BUT ... the friend whom I was visiting is just as social as I am solitary. So she was on and off her cell phone often while I was there. As I eavesdropped on multiple phone conversations, I found it interesting that so much of it was mundane, day-to-day stuff ... "how did things work out with your car repair?" ... "did you ever find that ________ you lost?" ... things like that.

In essence ... their phone conversations were very similar to their in-person conversations.

This probably seems obvious to everyone else. But I found it very enlightening!

Then I started eavesdropping at the airport.

Same thing ... "I'm getting off the plane, will be hitting McDonalds, and then probably be home in 45 minutes or so."

Hmmm ... interesting.

I think it's a good communication technique. I DO find my friends' day-to-day lives interesting, and I want to be involved in them. It would be a good way to do that. If I could cultivate this skill.

I know overhearing cell phone calls irritate a lot of the world, but I think that's because people invariably find the need to shout while they're doing it. My theory is, shouting should only be necessary if you're trying to make the call with the phone turned OFF.

But a normal tone of voice can be used ... I think I could do this without annoying the surrounding population.

I'm going to try it as a self-improvement project.

Trinka ... .the inherently anti-social ...