palaver

a few days ago i was small talking with someone i'd just met and in my attempt at witty bantering i used the word "insouciant", and the conversation came to an immediate halt.
"what did you say?"
"um... insouciant. hehe... so anyways..."
"insouci-what?"
"insouciant."
"i have never heard that word before!"
"it's no big deal. it's just a word i use sometimes."
"what does it mean?"
"um... like, nonchalant. or carefree."
"hu."
"so, anyways..."
"how do you spell it?"
"i don't know. i-n-s-o-u--something. s-i-e-n-t. or maybe c-i-e-n-t."
"here, let me write it down. is it french?"
"i don't know.
"i have never heard that word before!"
"okay."

and then he stood up and walked away.

i have got to work on my people skills.
seriously.
maybe there's a class i can take or something.
like a "how to not scare off people with your vocabulary that you pretty much only have because you obsessively watch 'newsradio'" class.


by the way, don't you just love mo rocca and michael ian black? of course you do.
i hope vh1 never runs out of things for them to provide commentary on.
i wonder if they ever used to scare people with their vocabulary?

Comments

Jon said…
Kat I think girls using vocabulary words I've never heard of before is way hot.

Unfortunately, someone's already skewered me with that tactic.
Lincoln said…
I've said it before and I'll say it again. YOU deserve to sit alongside Mo Rocca and Michael Ian Black and comment on the mind-numbing crap our pop culture machine spits out every day.
Nama said…
i get that reaction when guys ask me my major.
"anthropology?"
"yeah, i study dead people."
"uhh..." and he disappears quickly into the night.
i'm not sure if there's a class for me, especially since i'll have a big, fat degree come next month stamped with an "ANTHROPOLOGY"-smart seal. awww the intimidation.

p.s. i [heart] vh1. (my fav commentator is that rachel chick) they have my soul.
Ben said…
Umm... I feel your pain. Or rather, I also speak with occasionally grandiose vocabulary. No worry, grandiloquence is not necessarily a precursor to social stigma. (And vice versa: not all pariahs are ostracized for intelligence) What I meant to say is, yeah, me too.