I will be that bitter old lady

It's not a surprise to many people that I am just not a people person. I like being by myself. I like hanging out with Anna. She's a pretty cool person and enjoyable company.

Last year, I took a personality test. My results stated I was a 'Serious' personality. Then it continued, "tending to be an introvert, you are likely to be more involved with you interior reality...other people and situations may simply not be as interesting to you as your own thoughts." Well, that hit the nail on the head.

When I am an old lady children will point at my house and run away when they see me in the window and I am ok with that.

It's not that I don't like all people. I just raved about my family and friends in the last post. I do need people. I like people, but I don't like strangers. My most hated activity of all is small talk. I go to a lot of networking events for United Way and you can typically find me in the corner talking to the caterer. I am terrible at small talk and the truth is, I don't want to get better at it.

This week has been a little extreme for me too. I have had plans every night (lots of small talking). I have spent no time one-on-one time with Anna. I have even had plans on my lunch hour. I am running on empty. Anna is feeling a little neglected and starting to act out. It didn't help that How I met Your Mother wasn't on on Monday either.

Back to my point, people are strange. I do not want to know their drama or what happened on American Idol last night. Every time I try small talk, it goes horribly wrong. Here is one example from yesterday.

I work in a building with 400 others. Of course I do not know everyone nor do I care to (I know it's rude, but I put on a good facade. I am very cordial to most and have gotten to know a good handful of people in the building. I may not like people, but I do realize what I need to do to create a nice work environment and cordial atmosphere). I was sitting in a communications seminar yesterday and we were asked to turn to our neighbor and ask them the following question: What gives you joy about your life?

Reluctantly, I turn to my neighbor. A 60 year-old women with a snowman embroidered sweatshirt accompanied by a not quite matching snowman turtleneck. Her hair is very plain, no make-up, glasses circa '96, and her pants possibly were stirrups. I would question if she had showered today. You get the picture.

I ask. Her response: My joy is spending time with my husband. [well, that's nice] I like to go on dates with him. He is my fourth husband, but we don't have any kids together. My 4 kids are from the other 3 husbands. He has stuck around the longest, it's almost been 12 years. I tried to be single, but it never worked out to well. I like having sex too much.

This is why I don't like talking to strangers. People do not know boundaries, always give up way too much information or talk about drivel. This happens all the time. One day you all hear the story of the flirting pianist with the dead fiance.

The picture is an example of some of the people I actually like: me, Doty, and Nord. The other pic is me, Molly, Rae, Schriber, Doty, Nord, Morton, man that works with Morton, Boyet, Ginger, and Amanda.