Conversation

It's amazing how just talking to someone can make time pass quickly and pleasantly even in unpleasant situations.

Last night at work my foreperson but me on sorting duty, which means we had to go through the pet food and pick out all the pieces that weren't supposed to be there. It's a horrible job because you end up just standing around for 8 hours. You feet get tired and it's hard to stay awake.
Anyway, so I was working with the smiley guy. About an hour in he asks about how I hurt my hand (I need to wear a wrist brace at work) and we got to talking.
For a while we talked about animals and stuff, and then we talked about politics, and a bunch of other stuff in between.

When your mind is caught up in conversation, you don't remember that your feet are sore or that you're crazy sleepy. I realized last night that while I enjoy listening to people talk, I don't as much like to contribute. I would be happy to have conversations where all that is expected of me is strict attention, and no contribution (not always, of course, but some). Even if what they're saying isn't altogether engaging, I like to pay attention to how they form phrases or communicate their ideas. I love to watch facial expressions and mannerisms and try to figure out what the person is trying to get across with those particular gestures. I like to guess at what is behind a person's intonation.

It also helps when the guy talking to you is so... smiley! ;) Seriously, he's got these lovely sparkly eyes and just smiles a lot which makes his eyes sparklier. Makes me happy. Oh, and I'm not creepy for noticing his eyes. Everyone pays attention to this sort of thing, but apparently if we mention that a person has a really pleasant trait we suddenly "like" them. I am not a ditzy 15 year old going on about "crushes". I just find that his smileyness is catching and it's hard not to smile when someone smiles at you.

It also is very likely that the extremely sore throat I have is from shouted conversation all night. It's hard to get past the earplugs and factory noise. Either that or a specific philandering whore I know gave me mono (from a shared drink! no make outs! I swear!)