Pointless Conversations
 

I went out to eat earlier this evening and when I got home, I got a call from my mother. As soon as I answer the phone, she barks out "Have you seen those new cars?"

"What new cars?"
"The new cars that they came out with," she tells me.
"But what kind?" I ask. "Honda, Toyota, Subaru?"
"Yes."
"Yes what?"
"Those cars!"
"But which ones? Those are all from different companies," I tell her.
"THE ONES YOU SAID."
"So you're talking about the new cars from all different of companies?"
"Oh, forget it." And she hangs up on me.

Does anyone else get telephone calls as inane as the one I recently received? Do they irk you as much as they irk me? Do you ponder changing your number afterwards and not giving it to anyone so that they can't bother you? Crikey.

LOL... I can relate.

I often wonder if our elderly are over medicated. :shrug: You know some of that arthritis medications can have them in a stoned stupor by 2 pm. Seriously.

Ok, but maybe I can help translate her...I think she was talking about hybrids....after many years of trying to translate inane conversations with my own relations.....that is what I think she was trying to say....scary that I can interpret the overmedicated ramblings of an old person (maybe your mom isn't old, maybe she isn't overmedicated, but the conversation sounded familar).

I think all mothers are like that. :laugh:

I have a couple of friends who only call when they're driving from place to place. "Well, I'm here...gotta go!" :mad: :laugh:

My mom and I have those conversatons, but more often, it goes like this:


Late Night Non Sequiturs With Mom

ME: Aww, I never finished the hem on that curtain.
MOM: Do you want me to iron this shirt?
ME: Hey Mom, do you ever look at me and remember me small? Like, sometimes when I look at the boy, I look at his feet, and I think how weird it will be when he is a tall adult, to remember those little feet.
MOM: My brother went to school with a boy from a farm family, near us, who was so smart, brilliant really, and he went on...
ME: Who? Mom, what are you talking about?
MOM: What did you ask me?
ME: I wondered if you ever think of what I was like as a toddler, and find it strange that I am grown.
MOM: Sure, you are still the teeny Elizabeth - I will always think of you that way too.

My ma is only 46. :laugh:

She could be talking about hybrids, but it was so damned vague and inane that I was surprised she even told me that it was CARS that she was talking about.

You don't know my mother. :laugh: She's crazy as bat****. In a good way, but crazy nonetheless.

I get those, too. Mostly from friends. :laugh:

My mom lives with us, so I get these conversations live and in technicolor on an almost daily basis. :shocked:

be patient with your mother maybe she just wanted a reason to call you.:)

don't say that! if that was my mother she would beat my sorry behind...and she's 62!:nod:



You don't know my mother. :laugh: She's crazy as bat****. In a good way, but crazy nonetheless.

lol, I can relate to that. I have a friend who calls all the time when she's bored, and yet 85% of the time we end up either talking about pointless stuff (i.e. she seems to get a kick of out me saying the word 'biscuit' for some reason, and asks me to do so 3 times in a row) or else sometimes, it's just 10 minutes of solid silence. It gets quite annoying after a while, really.

Pointless conversations are always funny and instructing for me, also because I tend to indulge in them too. People sometimes are more honest and open with the others in their surreal moment, when they struggle to get out of their own world to communicate.

Romy

On a video phone you would be just staring at each other. ;)

I know of at least one character who does that here.

Diss, my roommate is young and I have that conversation all the time.

Roommate: Ummm...
Me: [waiting]
Roommate: Did you hear about that guy?
Me: No, what guy?
Roommate: Something happened to him.
Me: What happened to who?
Roommate: You know, that guy from, umm...
Me: [???]
Roommate: [silence]

:lol: She sometimes just trails off like that and never finishes. It drives me batty!!

Diss, my Mom is a complete nut but she's adorable. :laugh: Her thing is to tell me a story for the 17th time. Oh yeah, and her boyfriend doesn't like onions, so whenever she goes out she orders something with onions. Then she rolls her eyes and says, "I have to get onions when I'm out. Rick don't like onions." So now the big joke is, I always say to her, "Rick don't like onions." :lol: She's got a good sense of humor about her. She invented CRS (Can't Remember Sh*t). Despite the poor grammar she's a bright lady! She's got the math smarts though, not so much with the language.

This is Hilarious!!!

Im showin this to my friend, he will love it.

Consider yourself lucky, Diss. My mother never calls me. :(

It ain't just the old folks.

[QUOTE=amber]:lol:
My mom is crazy too, but astonishingly astute, and not at all vague, in fact the opposite. It's gross. She's really negative, though, which pisses me off. She'll call me and be like "well, I wish you had finished school earlier, now that you are thirty you probably won't be able to get a job" :shocked: :rolleyes: And she'll be like "Well, did you pay such and such? You suck with money, I think you have a problem and should get therapy!"

Yes, it's magical.

and then she tells me about bunches of stuff that is dangerous - like the place I live, and how she never wants to drive across that bridge again, and earthquakes, and blah. She majored in environmental science, so she knows more dangerous things than most people.
Oh, and I love when she tells me things about my Dad that I would never, ever, ever, want to know. :eek:

And then there's the times (usually) where I'll be like "oh, then I did this and this, and my friend blah, and whatever!" and she'll be like "OH! I did that and that and that, too, and my friend blah!" :rolleyes: and then follow with some advise.
That's why I rarely talk to them on the phone.
Like, I WISH my mom said something vague and then randomly hung up! :lol:
On the upside, she's very smart, so it can be fun, but whatevs.[/
QUOTE]

Can I just interject here and tell you Amber, that regardless of what you're going to school for, you HAVE to be a writer. Be a columnist or something, because I damn near pissed myself reading this post - tears streaaaaming down my face. So there- you have a brand new career!!

Oh and Diss, I think you're Mom was talking about the Smart Car. I had a similar convo with my Mom and she could't think of the name as it really doesn't have a "car" name, like something named after a carniverous animal or a planet.

It is magical.
My mother combines the vague and the negative, or rather she embeds the negative in the vague. I will tell her something her grandson did at the park, and she will say
"Oooh, I worry about Leo" (my son) but she won't give me the details of the worry when pressed, or how they relate to the park anecdote. Them, moments later, she might drop in an awful story from the news about a freak accident, complete with grisly details.

I got the ..."wish you had finished school earlier" for years. It's a little maddening, because, of course, you can't fix that one, even with a degree. The one negative thing my mother does that I have caught myself doing with my son, (and which I must stop doing) is that she broadcasts her concerns over my shortcomings. When I did poorly in Algebra, even while sailing through honors science and English courses, she told just about everyone she knew. Of course, my 2 year old is not in Algebra, but I have caught myself telling my friends that I am concerned about him getting pushed, or that he is short for his age, and I have done this while he is in the room. Noooo!

There's a cool resume item! Really.
Well it sounds like you have a plan (paralegals are paid well, I believe) and I think you really should pursue the writing too. I keep forgetting, I saved this link to pass on to you. Look at the second listing:
http://www.womanrock.com/jobs.htm
The twenties were really fun :woohoo: I have stories :nod: and have a few surviving SF friends to help me remember the parts that are hazy. ;^) After my mother got over the freak out of my moving to the City, dying my hair, working in clubs, etc. she started to romanticise my city life; it started after she read Tales Of The City.
It's good that you realize that, disables the manipulation mechanisms (yipes, that sounds like something from Est, or Landmark Forum.)
Now most of my interactions with my mom are about her relationship with my son. They want to hang out with each other, and that takes some of the pressure off of me. Otherwise, with just the two of us, it is too intense - I am an only child of a single mother.

Oh, I know. That's why I mentioned it, because I have already stopped doing it (well except for my example here). My son is really cool, and he is already into music and sound, and how things work. He cracks me up. I am just neurotic, so if a pediatrician crinkles his brow in concern at where my child falls in the height/weight bell curve, I can't stop worrying about it. :D So, I am never taking him to the doctor again.




Just kidding

That was my first thought, too.

I don't think they are medicated enough.

You just described my mother. Are you my long lost brother??? :lol:

So, is this a pointless conversation about pointless conversations?

Yes, sort of a meta-conversation about pointlessness.

oh pointy birds
oh pointy pointy
anoint my head
anointy nointy
S. Martin

Amber, tell your mom she might want to get some medication for her excessive anxiety. Tell her it really sounds clinical. Okay, maybe not tell her, but to me it does.

She is so wrong about you getting your degree later in life. Jeez Louise. You know, one of my best friends finished his engineering degree last year and is now being paid 80,000 a year. He is so excited and happy with his job. He is 34.

Just follow your bliss. Also, your mom may want to see you more now, but if something should happen with her health (which I hope it doesn't) that will change. My mom had breast cancer so now I want to see her and talk to her. Weird huh? :laugh:

I agree with others, you are a good writer.

My Mom once told me- "Children stop being children, but parents never stop being parents".

:laugh:

Yeah, I just had a pointless conversation with my husband this morning about parking. I love it when he says I say things that I never said! Wait...that was more of an argument than a pointless conversation :laugh:.

But yeah, I know what you're talking about. Sometimes people should just save it.

:laugh: I hate that ****. My mother-in-law does that and it drives me nuts!:]

or how about "pointless conversations" that are meaningless? Appropos for this thread I think...

Oh yes. sometimes I find myself nodding off on the phone!!:lol:

I have to second this. I just got my BS in Psychology last year and I am 37! It took me almost 8 years to get my degree, and I still have grad school this fall! I think our age gives of credibility that maybe a younger person wouldn't have. We need SOME kind of an edge, right?

And seriously, I love reading your posts- you are a great writer for sure.

In my case, that would be my dad. I didn't graduate college until I was 32. I didn't go to college right out of high school cuz I didn't know what I wanted to do. But I decided to go back to school when I realized how much I hated doing clerical work. Took me 11 years cuz I still didn't know exactly what I wanted to do and I changed major about 4 or 5 times! My dad would always say things like "I would have paid for your school if you'd gone right after high school, but you had to do it the hard way." I always felt like saying "well, if you'd have paid for it then, how about paying for it now!" And he'd say things like "by the time you finish school, you'll be making more in your current job than in your field." He frequently puts a negative spin on things, even if it's something I'm excited about. He can crush that spirit in a heartbeat! :lol: I must say, though, he's mellowing... he's not as bad with that as he used to be. I love him to death, but sometimes I'm totally drained after talking to him, because it feels like half the conversation is spent with me trying defening myself.

Wow. I feel sorry for so many of you who are saying that your parents are negative and put you down. http://www.websmileys.com/sm/sad/1346.gif That is so sad and it must be so hard on your self esteem. Parents are supposed to be supportive and unconditional. You guys are breaking my heart.


Kudos to those of you who are able to rise above their negativity!!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

That is my brother's favorite movie quote!

i called ftd wed
this is the fourth
time theyve messed
an order of mine
on hold 15 mins
"ftd may i help you"
"hi how are you"
"good thank you"
"your name please"
"may i help you"
"can i have your name"
click
:mad:

You meanie!:lol:

great minds think alike.

Maybe in your world. Mine? Not so much. My mother is SO finished being a parent. Out of sight, out of mind. She never calls me. Doesn't miss me. Would probably be happy never seeing me again. It does truly suck, and has affected my relationships. If I am ever lucky enough to have children, I vow that I will love them unconditionally and make sure they know that they are adored.

All you people whose parents love you to the point of being annoying... revel in it. Appreciate it. Realize how truly lucky you are. Because there are many of us who did NOT grow up knowing unconditional love.

Believe me, I dont take that for granted....:nod:

Well, my mom is usually pretty short and to the point with her phone conversations. Tho sometimes she'll call me on the cell phone and I'll be like, "So what did you call for?" and she'll respond "......I don't know. Call me later." and hangs up. And she yells everything instead of talking, since she works in a nursing home and nobody can hear her there. :laugh: Too bad she can't leave it there. :eek:

The real pointless conversations occur between me and my friends. Usually started by me, as lame ways to start a conversation. :laugh: Like, "Hear about that bird flu pandemic?" ; "What?" ; "Nevermind...See ya later." :p

I did however, have a conversation with my bf last night (tonight?) that went like this:

Me: Hi
Brad: I need to paint those chairs....Hi.
Me: What chairs.
Brad: The ugly ones.
Me: What ugly ones?! There are many!
Brad: The ones that need to be painted!
Me: (laughing)......I'm hanging up now. :laugh:
Brad: Ok, see ya later.

Apparently he has to paint some chairs for a play he's going to be in. :rolleyes: That's all he had to say! :laugh:

My parents rarely know what I'm talking about. My mom doesn't pay attention to what I'm saying, then asks questions. This is how it went when I picked her up from the airport last week:

Me to hubby: "How's the traffic on Union Rd? Is construction done? Should I take it?"
Hubby: "Yeah, it's fine. Two lanes each way, they're almost done."
Mom (from backseat): "Are you going to take Broadway? Don't forget about the construction on Union."
Me: "That's what we're talking about ma."
Mom: "oh, I wasn't paying attention. I thought you were talking about the dog."
:rolleyes:

Dad's even better, cuz he can't hear but won't admit it, esp. on the phone.

Me: "Hey dad, we're going to paint that wall today."
Dad: "Paint the what?"
Me: "The wall. In the bedroom."
Dad: "What are you painting? The hall?"
Me: "No, dad. THE WAAAALLL! W-A-L-L! In the BEDROOM!"
Dad: "OK, stop yelling, I couldn't hear you!"
Me, thinking to self ' no sh*t, that's why I'm yelling. So you can hear me.'

Fun fun fun.