Chatty Charlie

3/10/11:

There was a long line of cars today, since it was raining, and not as many riders. When I walked up to the white sedan and saw the man in the driver's seat I knew it was going to be an interesting ride into work. The last time I rode with him he talked the entire time, and as I was playing on my phone or reading email, he made a comment about how young people these days are all about ipods and such. He may not have said it directly, but I was in the front seat and I took it to mean, "how come you aren't participating in our conversation and would rather play with your iPhone."

The lady who got in the car with me as the third person was apparently someone he knew from slugging. So the conversation today began as a one-sided explanation of how the driver has an upcoming trip to Japan for work. The last time I rode with him he made discussion about Japan as well, having just returned from a trip there. So I wasn't surprised when he made the same jokse about standing out in the "sea of black hair and short people" as a giant, red-nosed American. And when I got to my office the topic had somehow reached the topic of his daughter's entry into track rather than field hockey. He's quite the Chatty Charlie.

Now let me explain the trail this conversation took to get from Point A to Point B during our 45-minute car ride. From his jokes about his trip to Japan, we moved onto how he has some disease where his nose is always red. But according to him, it's really more stress-related. The other passenger claimed to have the same case, and he went on to describe just how bad his gets sometimes, and the dermatologist's solutions for it. According to him it has something to do with protein synthesis.

From there, he started talking about his solution for acne relief being to lead a more balanced, healthy, stress-free life. That led into a conversation about how teenagers want to have flawless skin, and how some of his daughter's friends have even gone on the "pill" at the ripe age of 15 just to get better skin. He then entertained us with a brief history and background of "the pill." He had to mention that of course, they most likely weren't using the pill to "prevent pregnancy," but that it still wasn't healthy to be on that at such a young age. Somehow the conversation opened to the topic of people they personally knew who were once straight and got married and had kids then turned gay, or were once gay then turned straight. That took up a decent amount of time as they both had very specific experiences with that topic. Definitely the widest array of topics covered in one of my slugging commutes thus far.

I have a feeling he won't remember me the next time I ride with him, either, and I'll get the same history of his children and his daughter who is now fantastic at track although she doubted her initial abilities, as well as another wildly drastic and everchanging conversation string.