in a Box...

Ahhhh and we come to the first defining conversation I can share.

Last night – a Tuesday (our usual Tuesday nights are spent at a Winking Lizard somewhere – w/ the friends on the beer tour learning more about beer than an non-beerdrinker should ever know and enjoying excellent company and a martini or 2)

- On the way home (a friend gave me a ride, for which I am eternally grateful – I didn’t feel like driving after this week from Hell I seem to be in the midst of) we got to talking about work. He at one point paused and accused me of not knowing what he did for a living, not that he works randomly in computers, but the specifics of what he does. I rattled back to him exactly what he does all day. He was surprised that I remembered. I remember because he picked up the new job right before we met, and he was very excited about it. I would go so far as to say passionate about it. Of course I paid attention and retained the intel. He explained that most people don’t really pay attention when others in unrelated/uninteresting fields are talking about their jobs.

I do. I note what the people I care about are saying about all aspects of their lives. I’m that kind of person, that kind of friend. I’m the kind of friend who finds out you’ve been keeping a blog for 5 years, who will go back and start reading from the beginning – just to get a better understanding of you. The kind who hears you drop unfamiliar words or concepts in passing conversation goes home and researches them. Conversely I also understand that very few people bother w/ such mundane details anymore. Lazy rat bastards all of them.

And I understand almost no one pays attention like I do. I say if you really don’t care that much about the people you are choosing to surround yourself with – it’s time to find new people. If they are that bad you need to seriously find some new someones to be near. And if it is you, you need to reprioritize and consider if the life you are living is really all that fulfilling. If you don’t enjoy the view and refuse to do anything to change it, you should be in a box. Not be killed, in a box 6 ft under, so much as be held in a box which opens into another dimension so the rest of us don’t have to interact w/ you at all.