The Countryside.

     I spent most of my day driving aimlessly through the countryside listening to good music; stopping a few times to walk through trails in the woods. That sounds so poetic...but I digress. It was nice to clear my head, take some time to myself where I didn't have any unnecessary noise pollution coming at me and just enjoy where I was, in that moment.

     I'm type of person that worries a lot, usually about other people and it's hard to be like that. It means I'm stressed more often than not about things beyond my control and I can realize that's probably not the best way to live my life but I also can't stop myself from having that level of concern for other people. This paragraph probably seems really off topic but there's a point - I swear. 

     This is something I kept thinking about today while I was walking and I realized that even though I can't stop myself from being concerned, I can counteract that stress by taking time for myself...like I did today and barely ever have in the past.
     It's a little late for resolutions but I've set a new goal for myself. I want to make sure that at least once a week I take the time to drive off to the middle of nowhere, go on a hike, sit by the lake...just enjoy being alone, not having to think about everything else for a little while and just be content in where I am at that moment in time. 

     I always tell people to focus on the little things in their life that are positive and good. I'm realizing I should start taking my own advice every now and again. 

xx

Small Talk

        Now, I don't know if this is just me but has anyone else noticed how horrible people have gotten at small talk? I mean, I get it...not many people actually enjoy small talk so it's difficult to keep up but seriously, how do you not understand what acceptable small talk is?
       In the last few weeks I've encountered more than a handful of people either near my work, or on the bus, even a few people from my Facebook who have tried to start conversations with me. This is always nice...until the person seems to realize that the only small talk they can think of is "Hi how are you, how about that weather?" So in scrambling to come up with something else to keep the conversation going they blurt out any number of creeping/invasive/off-putting comments and/or questions.
       Most notably for me, and for a lot of people I've talked to about this are the pretty much immediate questions about your sex life. I'm sorry, but where did you learn that asking someone about their sex life when you've only been speaking for 5 minutes was acceptable? It's creepy. Unless I'm in a relationship with you, or thinking about being in a relationship with you...why would I even bother to respond to those questions. Surely, you have to realize that most people are going to be extremely freaked out if you ask them "how kinky are you?" when you just met on a bus, or if you pop up on Facebook and you haven't seen or spoken to each other since elementary school. I mean I'm a pretty open person, 9 times out of 10 if you ask me something I'm going to give you an honest answer but seriously there aren't many people out there that won't try and put as much distance as possible between you and them if you're following up "Nice to meet you" with "So...how's your sex life?"
       How difficult is it to ask someone about their taste in music, movies, TV shows, or books? Even asking about work or school? Why is it that for some reason we automatically want to know the most intimate and personal details of someones life? I'm kind of interested in whether this decline in small talk has anything to do with the fact that most of the topics we used to cover when first meeting someone can easily be discovered by looking at their social media profiles. Either way, I really think people need to reevaluate how they're coming across to another person when they first meet, it's not that hard to think about what you're saying before you say it.

xx