Talking to Women
I don’t consider myself particularly gifted in the art of conversation. My one hard and fast rule is to avoid saying too much or revealing a lot of my personality; I would rather most people saw me as shy and reserved, instead of judging me on a sliver of myself that is likely misrepresentative of the whole. This default reserved behavior is important in surviving when speaking to or interacting with a novel group, where you can feel the judgments flying back and forth like biscuits in a food fight.
The biscuits certainly fly around in my lab group, where we have a lot of dead time between experimental procedures. Staring into the laminar flow hood watching the micropipetting of IgG antibodies for the ELISA assay, I found my brain listening to a conversation amongst the girls in my group about open bars at weddings. The general consensus was, if it could be afforded, an open bar is a fun option for most any reception. Conversation continued, touching on making beer free but charging for liquor, and finding the appropriate people to pay for such amenities. Emboldened by the relaxed atmosphere, I thought I would chime in with a comment: “Yeah, or you could make it BOYB for the reception.” *silent cymbal crash indicating humor*
Crickets. No response at all. If I had been a comedian on stage, a very long cane would have pulled me off into the wings. Now granted, my statement wasn’t particularly funny (I’m not defending it on those grounds), but I really don’t think it earned the title of Worst Conversation Addendum Ever — No Response Necessary. Though earn that title it did. Handily, even. I threw in the conversational towel and went back to keeping my mouth shut.
Comments
Nils
Alex, you have a girlfriend. You don’t have worry about talking to women right now (besides Mykala).
Adam Caulfield +2
Well did you really say “BOYB” or “BYOB”? If stated as above, maybe that explains their non-response. Sadly, I’ve heard BYOB way too many times…
Alexander Micek
Haha, yeah I’ve been meaning to edit that to correct it - I actually said “BYOB,” but typed it incorrectly in the post. Silly mistake …
We’ll have to see if Mykala feels that I am even any good at talking to her :)
Richard
it would have been funnier if you actually pronounced “BYOB” as a word. try it, it’s fun.