After the week I had last week, I feel like I'm a tornado survivor. I will be playing catch-up all this week. I try to explain to customers and friends that I'm hectically busy these days. They like to ask me "was last week a good busy?" I suppose they mean, "was it financially lucrative?" But asking it that way identifies the asker as a pompous, rod-up-the-butt small talker. The folksy "good busy" expression seems to imply that if you're going to be busy, it might as well bring you money. Just like asking "how are you" requires the all-American standard response of "fine", "was it a good busy" requires a simple "yes". You very well can't tell the person "no, it wasn't a good busy? I spent the entire week bending over backwards for clients who gripe over a few hundred dollars and then take all of my work and give it to somebody else who works from his mother's basement. So now I'm scrambling to land more accounts since two of my customers are in bankruptcy and the rest of my accounts together only pay for my dog's food."
Naturally, that kind of answer is considered poor form socially. It's like truthfully answering when asked "how are you today?" You are not supposed to honestly answer that question unless you are over 70 years old.
I think I'm going to stop asking people how they are. I want break out of this horrible social prison we have created where people ask questions when they don't want the truthful answers. Instead, I'm going to ask questions that have more real-world meaning. When somebody starts to bitch about being busy, I'm going to ask "Do you mean you were gettin' busy?" followed by "Cuz if you weren't, then I really don't want to hear." That will stop the gripe-fest but will leave open the opportunity to live vicariously through their experiences.
"How does this look?" and all of its variations like "Does this make my butt look big?" and "Does this make me look fat?" etc. are examples of questions never meant to be asked, but should especially be avoided at all costs. I also think that "What are you doing?" is a loaded question, especially when asked of someone who is home alone on the phone. When you ask somebody that on the phone, do you really want to know what that person is doing? I thought not.
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Unrest by Parkway Drive