Precocious and my work rant.

I just learned the definition for precocious today... I thought I knew what it meant, but I think I was wrong... I'm still not sure. I get a word from Merriam-Webster's online dictionary everyday (because there is no boundary to my nerdiness) and today's was precocious. Apparently it means "exhibiting mature qualities at an unusually early age" and for some reason I always associated it with a negative connotation. Like "uh, that child is so precocious - what a pain!"But it sounds to me like precocious is a good thing. Until it irritates the nearest adult, I suppose. Then like all good things, it becomes a bad thing when it puts someone out.

Funny story:

I was ringing this lady's books up at the store the other day and she blurts out: "when it comes your time, go get your mammograms done." Then she reaches up to her collar and pulls down her shirt to show me where someone has drawn geometric shapes on her skin and proceeds to tell me that she's just been to radiation therapy. And if she hadn't gotten her mammogram, she'd probably be dying of breast cancer instead of being treated for it.

I love it when people tell me intimate details of their health, love life, personal life, (basically anything I didn't ask about and have no wish to know about) and then look at me. What!? What am I supposed to say?! Uh... thanks for sharing? It is lame, but I have a hard time coming up with responses to things like that. Am I supposed to sympathize with their plight? Talk about people I know who are going through / have gone through the same thing? I pretty much end up looking like a deer in the headlights and gasping for air like a deer hit by the headlights.

It catches me off guard every time. One minute I'm telling you your total is $18.49 and the next your detailing the trials and tribulations of the labor of your first born which ultimately ended up as a cesarean birth. And I'm thinking.... just because my name is on my shirt and you might have read it, meaning that you might know it, does not mean we're friends!! Strangers talk about bland things like the weather, hopes that you'll have a nice day, and how lame gas prices are. Save all your talk relating to bodily functions, bodily fluids and bodily break-downs for friends and family. Strangers are much less vested in you and tend to care a lot less. If you have no friends or family, then go and make some strangers your friends. But start out slow by talking about the weather, hopes for having a nice day and the ridiculous price of gas that we all pay because we're too lazy to take the bus and walk.

Now, leave me be, I have to go and study French.