Being boring/people at parties.

[catorman]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Neil Ward" <neilward at d...> wrote:
> Following on from David's comments, Naama said:
> 
> << Dave, Amanda - are you kidding me?! It's me who's boring and 
barely
> tolerated (not to mention practically illiterate <wink at 
Mahoney>). >>
> 
> I've spoken in meetings where people have gone to sleep right under 
my nose.
> That's how interesting I am.   I think it's my speaking voice, 
which is not
> only very soft, but has all the tonal variety of a gently humming 
fridge.
> 
> Of course, that's when I'm at work droning on about something that, 
frankly,
> makes *me* want to close my eyes and escape into daydreams.  If I'm 
being
> passionate about something (it can happen), I can usually manage to 
keep my
> companions in the land of the living.
> 
> David is far from boring, by the way.  I call him 'Interesting' 
Dave.
> 
> Neil/Flying Ford Anglia

I agree, with this about David, and would also like to add that Neil 
himself is far from boring.  As someone who has been trapped in a car 
with Neil for a number of hours (driving to and from Oxford last 
summer)  I can assure everyone that I did not fall asleep at the 
wheel, and that Neil kept me entertained for the duration of the 
journey!

Talking of boredom - I went to a party last night - a friend's 30th 
birthday.  I got stuck talking to this guy, who was one of the rudest 
people I've ever come across at a social gathering.  He'd already 
insulted me about what I was doing with my life, about Mickey (my 
husband), told me that I was obviously ignorant about Scandinavia if 
I had anything nice to say about Swedish people because nice Swedish 
people don't exist (?!) and  I was getting to the end of my tether 
with him when he asked me what degree I did at University.  Last 
straw -  when I told him that I did Joint Honours English and 
History - said:

"Oh, I see, you're one of those sad intellectually challenged people 
who couldn't cope with a real degree."

Me:  *laughs feebly* assuming he was joking.

Him:  I'm serious.  People only do joint degrees if they can't hack 
single honours.  I'm surprised you could cope with Law.

Me:  *splutter* (by this time feeling very defensive) What?  That's a 
bit uncalled for.

Him: Yeah, I know, probably a bit of an aggressive statement, but 
true.

This from someone I had known for about 15 minutes.  I then started 
coughing ('flu remnants) and he went into a rant about how if I was 
getting over the 'flu how selfish it was of me to turn up at a party, 
where I could spread germs and infect a number of people - he 
obviously didn't understand about when people are infectious, which 
was fine by me because it meant that he went off to be rude to 
someone else, and a very nice woman from Milan came to talk to me 
instead.

I just don't understand why someone, at a social gathering, would be 
so rude and obnoxious with someone he'd just met.  He talked to 
Mickey for a while as well, who had the same problem with him, and 
when I asked Judith (the hostess) about him, she said that he was 
always like that.  My reaction was, well then, why is he your friend, 
and why did you invite him to your party, considering he's absolutely 
no social skills whatsoever, and thinks that it is clever to insult 
as many people as possible in the room.  I didn't say that to her 
obviously, although I probably will next time I see her.

Oh well, maybe he just didn't like my face.

Catherine