Consider the most common question: "How's it going?"
I hate that question. It's the bane of my existance, and I'm guessing most of yours. Seriously, unless you've got a really fulfilling job saving lives or working on something really interesting, you've never had a good answer for that question (and since you're reading this blog, your job can't be important or interesting). I avoid that question like the plague, you either know me well enough to know how I'm doing or I don't talk to you. Plain and simple, you're not going to get to ask me that question unless you've got me cornered in some awkward social situation and I've got no-where to go.
Like, what are people expecting here? Some kind of open diatribe on how the last 2 weeks to a month have gone for me? I got news for you, it's pretty boring and simple. I wake up, I blog, I go to work, I come home, maybe jog/probably watch tv, eat, go to bed. Occasionally there's a wildcard thrown in there, but even then it's something mundane like, got a hair cut or, changed a flat tire. It's nothing life altering, I'll assure you of that. Believe me I'll knock on the door of every person I know if something life altering happens, you'll know.
My standard answers run down to:
"The Same" - Translation: "You see me fairly regularly, you know I've got nothing going on, what are you hassling me for?" A fairly quick way to snuff out that conversation. Let's face it, I've got nothing going on, and neither do you or you would have already volunteered it.
"You know, the usual, working for the weekends" - Translation: "I haven't seen you for a while and/or don't really know you and don't really feel like reconnecting or getting to know you, and if you follow up and ask me what my job is all about, I'll probably blatantly walk away from you." This is really reserved for old schoolmates, friends you've lost touch with, or acquaintances you were never really friends with anyway but they feel obligated to talk to you when you randomly bump into each other in line at the supermarket.
"I Have a Blog Now" - Translation: "I'm desperately trying to divert attention away from the fact that I've had basically the same basic job for 5 years now, just with a few different titles, it's boring as all hell and I really don't like explaining it to people because that means I actually have to think about my job while I'm not working." You know me, we probably haven't spoken in a while but I actually am interested in reconnecting, I'm just not willing to talk about my obscenely boring life.
That's it. Those are my answers. I literally have nothing else to contribute to small talk beyond those three answers. You want to talk about sports, beer, politics, random forms of technology, I'm all for it, you want to shoot the shit about nothing, that's what you'll get.
