True Story
Mar. 7th, 2011 02:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crankyoldmanSo, I was at a conference on Tuesday.
Workshops are conferences are the most boring things ever. And while one of them was interesting (it was about mentoring, which was something relevant to my interests as I am in charge of high schoolers that kind of look up to me and that mildly terrifies me), the conference mostly depressed the hell out of me. I really feel for the poor teachers in this state.
When I was told we were on our own for lunch, I took off to the first restaurant that wasn't likely to be filled with educators from the conference, because it was a little upscale. Since I was alone, I sat at the bar, for immediate food having.
Talking with strangers is never an issue for me. In fact, it's half the reason that I like to go to places and travel alone; you never know who you're going to meet. I have sort of a radar for who to strike up a conversation with and who not to. Some people are better left alone, you have to respect that.
In the case of this place, it was an older lady. Older than my mom, but not terribly old. Now, I really love talking to older people especially. They always have the best stories.
Anyway, I initiated the conversation partly because if I started talking with her, the slightly creeper businessman on the other side of me wouldn't have an excuse to strike up a convo with me. And deflecting creeper encounters is also something I've gotten good at. I can't wait to be over 30 and start becoming invisible to men, I tell you what.
We talked about a lot of things, because I had a 1.5 hour lunchbreak, which is a longass time to tell stories. And because I'm tricksy, I managed a sale for my game. XD But there were a couple of highlights to this convo.
The first was when we got on the subject of creepers.
See, this lady apparently was into the traveling and being places alone thing at my age. And it was even more unusual back then. I joked with her that I'm not afraid to sit at the bar because I've gotten pretty good at deflecting unwanted attentions (for the most part, cons and parties are hard to manage this). Apparently she was too.
Lady: Oh, so what did you do to a guy to get that to happen? I broke a guy's wrist once.
Me: Oh I stabbed a guy with a pen.... please elaborate on your story.
Lady: Well I was at a movie theater and this guy really wanted me to hold his hand... so I did. And broke his wrist.
Me: Wow.
Lady: The unfortunate thing for him was that he couldn't zip his pants back up when the cops arrived.
Suffice to say, we got on well. It more than made up for the depressing aspects of the conference. Considering that I am feeling incredibly restless, striking up conversations with strangers is a good way for me to get out of my own head for a while.
Also, tip for life from this Lady:
"No one ever did anything interesting by being nice and respectable."
Amen, sister.
Now hopefully this whole apartment thing works out, I am so tired of living in this basement.
Workshops are conferences are the most boring things ever. And while one of them was interesting (it was about mentoring, which was something relevant to my interests as I am in charge of high schoolers that kind of look up to me and that mildly terrifies me), the conference mostly depressed the hell out of me. I really feel for the poor teachers in this state.
When I was told we were on our own for lunch, I took off to the first restaurant that wasn't likely to be filled with educators from the conference, because it was a little upscale. Since I was alone, I sat at the bar, for immediate food having.
Talking with strangers is never an issue for me. In fact, it's half the reason that I like to go to places and travel alone; you never know who you're going to meet. I have sort of a radar for who to strike up a conversation with and who not to. Some people are better left alone, you have to respect that.
In the case of this place, it was an older lady. Older than my mom, but not terribly old. Now, I really love talking to older people especially. They always have the best stories.
Anyway, I initiated the conversation partly because if I started talking with her, the slightly creeper businessman on the other side of me wouldn't have an excuse to strike up a convo with me. And deflecting creeper encounters is also something I've gotten good at. I can't wait to be over 30 and start becoming invisible to men, I tell you what.
We talked about a lot of things, because I had a 1.5 hour lunchbreak, which is a longass time to tell stories. And because I'm tricksy, I managed a sale for my game. XD But there were a couple of highlights to this convo.
The first was when we got on the subject of creepers.
See, this lady apparently was into the traveling and being places alone thing at my age. And it was even more unusual back then. I joked with her that I'm not afraid to sit at the bar because I've gotten pretty good at deflecting unwanted attentions (for the most part, cons and parties are hard to manage this). Apparently she was too.
Lady: Oh, so what did you do to a guy to get that to happen? I broke a guy's wrist once.
Me: Oh I stabbed a guy with a pen.... please elaborate on your story.
Lady: Well I was at a movie theater and this guy really wanted me to hold his hand... so I did. And broke his wrist.
Me: Wow.
Lady: The unfortunate thing for him was that he couldn't zip his pants back up when the cops arrived.
Suffice to say, we got on well. It more than made up for the depressing aspects of the conference. Considering that I am feeling incredibly restless, striking up conversations with strangers is a good way for me to get out of my own head for a while.
Also, tip for life from this Lady:
"No one ever did anything interesting by being nice and respectable."
Amen, sister.
Now hopefully this whole apartment thing works out, I am so tired of living in this basement.