When come back bring Proto Indo-European.
I work with about a dozen of that person. And his friend " So you sure like to read, huh?".
Uh huh. Go on. Right, right. Get outa town.
Wow. When I’m at my mom’s, if she’s not talking about my weight, it’s:
Mom: “Watcha doin’?”
Me: “Reading.”
Mom: “Oh. Watcha readin’?”
Me: “[insert title here]”
Mom: “Oh. What do you want to do now?”
Me: “Well, I’m reading.”
Mom: “I know, but what do you want to do NOW? It’s a nice day, isn’t it?”
Me: hmmmmms in agreement
Mom: “Isn’t it?”
Me: confused silence - I didn’t think the question really required an answer
Mom: “Isn’t it a nice day? Isn’t it? Why aren’t you listening?”
Me: “I’m sorry. I thought that was a rhetorical question. Yes, it’s a nice day.”
Mom: “Oh…So, what do you want to do now?”
Everybody has certain characteristics that they just can’t stand in other people. Pointless-talking is mine. These type of people drive me absolutely bat shit insane.
We went on a week-long vacation to PEI with my aunt. Oh man, she would NOT cease her endless commentary on everything she happened to see.
“Oh wow, look at all the sheep on that farm”
“That’s interesting, they haven’t harvested their corn yet”
“Are you still reading that book?”
“So what are your classes like?” [as if I could really explain electromagnetic theory or engineering calculus to her]
She does the same thing when I’m trying to read a book,
“you sure read a lot”
“what’s that book about?”
“oh, that’s interesting”
“come and sit outside”
Can she not see that the reason I’m sitting along, reading a book, is precisely because I don’t feel like talking?
My dad is really about this when I return home with my laptop. He always asks “what the heck are you doing on that all the time?”
What does he really expect me to say? Reading the latest CSS standards? Experimenting with some code to interface PHP with an SQL database? Reading an IEEE paper on electrostatic coating?
Sorry, that was really badly written. I typed it up real quick and just sent it off.
Oh tell me she wasn’t talking about the FSU-Miami game! Oh the horror!!! I can’t believe she brought up such a horrible thing!
:dubious: Musta been.
My personal favorite is “launch into long pointless anecdote about people that I don’t know that she knows I don’t know”. Bonus points if it’s about their freaking cats.
There’s also the daily short conversation about how great our local PBS station is. Even though I only visit two or three times a year, I can count on that one. It’s like clockwork.
I’m sorry, but his woman cannot be your mother in law. My sister in law has never married.
Seriously, I understand your frustration. My mother in law is a chatter. I am not. It’s only worse on the phone.
She thought I hated her, until my wife told her that I hated talking on the phone. This is very true. When we were first married, she did a lot of traveling, and it ws like pulling teeth to get me to stay on the phone for more than twenty minutes.
Urgh. My father will do this. For example, he’ll sit at the breakfast table and practically read the sports section to me, while I’m trying to read a different part of the paper. It doesn’t matter whether I’ve already read the sports section or not. It doesn’t matter that I don’t give a rat’s ass about football or golf, which is usually what he’ll go on about, or that if it’s about hockey, I’ve either already read it or will be sure to do so.
“Uh huh.”
“That’s nice.”
“Um hmm.”
“Dad, I’m trying to read this.” “Oh.”
The real bugger is, if I quote an article to him, he’ll occasionally get miffed, because I’ve interrupted him while he’s trying to read!
You could try the tactic that my wife uses on me on those occasions where I’ll ramble on and on for a while. She says “No one talked to you today, did they?”, which lets me know that I’m being a bit manic, but keeps it light enough that I just laugh it off instead of being hurt.