talk to strangers

I was really quiet today. I didn’t talk as much as I should have. I missed many opportunities for conversation. Oh well. Everyone has an off day I guess.

This has been going well. Most conversations are just talking about nothing. I wonder if I will get to the point where I will have (more) meaningful conversations with strangers.

So like two days after I wrote this I was on the bus and an old man happened to comment on my umbrella on such a hot day and I’d usually shrug and look away but i was like hell, let’s start this stranger talk from here! :D and i did, and yes he was kinda crazy and crazy lol, but turns out he was also a palmist! which was very cool, it sparked my interest in palmistry again, he gave me a lottt of insight about my life just through that andddd he misread something. lol he told me i’d die in 4 years, which made me go a little crazy…which was great! lol because you accomplish a hell of a lot when you only think you have 4 years to live hahahaha it made me let go of lots of grudges and things that bothered me, move forward and figure out what i loved most in life and work hard to go closer to that and start loving myself more, i talk to wierd people everywhere now lol

Rating myself high on this one!

Africanized bees…

I’ve been asking a lot of people about their backgrounds and life stories. It is so interesting to hear about other people.

Just after college, I shared an old farmhouse with 3 other men. One evening I answered the phone and the woman on the line said, “Hi, How are you?”
I couldn’t quite recognize the voice, but assumed that it was perhaps a long-lost friend. So I answered, “Good, how about you?” And we continued on talking for a few minutes—small talk… as I tried to figure out who she was. And then she said, “How’s school going?” and I said, “I’m not going to school,” and she said, “Donn????” and I said, “No, I’m sorry, just a second…” Donn was sitting across the room from me and looked at me like I was a con man as I handed him the phone.
Whoooops.

I was able to carry on a conversation with a friend of a friend’s at a dinner table. This is pretty remarkable considering I was chewing and speaking to someone at the same time.

I work for a relatively large company and in spite of being here 20+ years and knowing lots and lots of people, there are still plenty of times on elevators to talk with strangers. Last month I got onto an elevator where several women were already on. On the next floor one of them exited. After the doors closed, one woman said about the departee, she looks so good in that brown. She should wear outfits like that more often. They proceeded to comment. Just before my floor, I turned to them and asked if they had any advice for me? Perfect timing as they all laughed and I got off on my floor.
Just last night visiting a friend’s apartment, we were taking the elevator down and a couple people got on and then a few more including a guy carrying a tall plant. I said, “Is that marijuana?” And we all laughed. Then the guy and I both said at the same time, “no, it’s got too many leaves.” I further commented that I knew that because of pictures I’d seen in books.

this works best when drunk/with mates. In our village there are so many tourists in the summer so you can’t help but to talk to them! It’s fun cause you don’t have to be all sensible and normal, just mess about, find someone who is willing to talk back and just ask them where theyre from etc. A thing we like to do is randomly play ‘tourist tig’ when you have a game of tig going on between a few of your mates then you run past a randomer and tig them. Usually they laugh and think youre a bit strange, you get the odd one who gives you evils :P