A peek at the life, times and thoughts of John during his two-year stint in Knoxville.

I know that one area of my communication ability I need to work on is conversing with people I'm unfamiliar with. Having grown out of a painfully introverted background it is still a challenge for me to carry much of a conversation with people I just met or barely know.

 

I've been working on it, though, on people who have no other choice but to participate in the conversation. Folks like bank tellers, cashiers...anybody who because of the definition of their job and the insistence of their bosses that they be nice at all costs will stand there and at least put up with me until the transaction is complete.

 

My last two trips to the bank, Christmas music has been my weapon of choice to chit chat about. The day after Thanksgiving I observed that they were playing away and asked them when they started playing it. Today I returned and they weren't playing Christmas music. I said something to the effect of: "Already worn out on Christmas music, huh?" and learned that they're rotating days so they don't burn out on it.

 

Amazingly, a real miniature conversation erupted about the monotony of the same Xmas songs being played over and over and how working in retail burns folks out on Christmas music. Obviously blown away by the incredible conversation (I speak sarcastically) my teller forgot two separate steps of the transaction process. Good thing I was prepared. Two lessons learned: 1) Sometimes employees actually do enjoy a bit of small talk. 2) I actually *can* talk to people without them ripping my head off!

 

Another observation is that for all the Christmas music that plays this time of year, there still seems to be a high amount of people who get fed up with it. I knew this beforehand, but my own personal sampling of folks has the rate at a ridiculously high level.

 

My Christmas cheer is actually at a fairly high level right now. Just don't ask me to play carols around the clock.