You know the idea of six degrees of separation, right? Everyone is connected to everyone else with six or fewer steps, if you could only figure out the right connections. Well, apparently I live in a constant state of being two degrees of separation from excruciatingly lame, boring people. Because *I'm* not lame and boring (just humor me here, okay?), and my *friends* aren't lame and boring, but it is just far too common that I end up at a party with lame, boring people simply crawling out of the woodwork.

I just left such an event. We got stuck making bizarre small talk ("Have you noticed that there are more squirrels in town this year?") with a man who is an actuary. Which means he does a lot of number-crunching for an insurance company. This might sound boring or intimidating to some, but my husband is a mathematician, so he thought, great, someone I have something in common with. No, no. My husband can carry on interesting conversation. This man gave me the opportunity to completely plan out my Christmas gift list, remind myself to get the oil changed, think out a grocery list aisle-by-aisle and alphabetically, mentally rewrite my dissertation, and consider the fascinating alternative of watching paint dry. It's not every day you get to see a living, breathing stereotype in action - but this guy was truly the boring, stuffy mathematician.

And he was the most interesting person at the party!!!

Ugh. I know I sound snotty, but please, someone, watch the news or read a book or ask me an intelligent question about myself or tell me something new and different about yourself. I'm a psychologist, I can listen to ANYTHING and act interested, but right now my head hurts from straining sooooo hard to force myself to stay conscious. I don't want to act interested, I actually want to BE interested.

Whine. I'm sorry to be so negative. Of course I'm lucky to even get invited out, and to have friends who throw parties once in a while - especially kid-friendly ones! - but ugh, ugh, ugh, I get out of the house so rarely, I was really looking forward to some adult conversation. Maybe next year.