I'm not much of a talker. I hate talking on the phone, which is kind of funny since I talk on the phone all day at my job. I hate not being able to see the person I'm talking to, and there is always that inevitable awkward silence when I assume they are going to say something else... but then they don't. "so...." and then silence. I hate that. I will never master the phone. I think I take most of my cues visually, which makes what I say based on how the person is moving, gesturing, standing. I pride myself in being able to gage a persons interest level. Nobody likes to pretend to listen to a story in which he is completely uninterested. Of course there is always the time and place to allow people to vent and rant or just talk through a long scenario, and you indulge them because you would want the same done for you. It is different, however, when people just don't know when to be quiet.

On the train today, there was a couple sitting across from me. The woman was talking the entire train ride about a litter of hound dogs and how cute they were and how she howled at them and they howled back. Her boyfriend was hysterical. He held her hand and smiled politely and nodded and looked into her eyes every once in a while but his focus was everywhere on the train but on her puppy tale. He could care less about the hound dogs and their howling. He didn't say a word. At his stop he turned and gave her a kiss and wished her a good day. She sat there glowing and smiling for the next two stops. She was clearly in love, clearly oblivious to his disinterest to her talking, but I'm sure he loves her just the same.

People's dynamics with each other fascinate me to no end. Why is it that some people get along with nothing in common, and yet others who you might assume to be great friends actually can't stand the sight of each other? And why is it you can be friends with someone for many years and have a falling out so severe you might never speak to each other again?

Relationships are interesting in that way. It also makes me wonder about the dynamic between two people in love and two people in a marriage and how a legal contract effects a relationship in society. But that's a box of a different color. I'll release that pandora another day...