Give Me A Conversation Starter

I'm in a bit of a mood that I don't know how to describe. It's almost like I'm lonely, despite being around people. And not just being around them; I'm interacting with people. I even went out for coffee with friends today. Part of it probably has to do with the fact that I had pie for lunch (happy pi day). While it felt great at the time, my body was definitely craving some real food by the end of the afternoon. So I decided to make KD. Perhaps not my smartest decision, but we all live with regrets (I did have some spinach salad on the side though).
I think part of it is that how I interact with people has changed a lot over the past 4 years. I was always on the extreme introvert side. I didn't enjoy hanging out with people all the time. I would max out at one social event per week. Over the past 4 years though, I've become more comfortable in who I am and have moved from 'extreme introvert' to 'introvert' (maybe even veering into ambivert...but let's not complicate things). I enjoy hanging out with my friends more often and will even plan things myself (unheard of prior to high school expect for special occasions such as my birthday). Especially after my term abroad, I'm much better at communicating with friends and putting effort in on my end of things.
The point I'm trying to meander to here, is that I always relied on other people to initiate things. And not just for hanging out; I would wait for other people to start conversations. I would wait for other people to message me or reach out to me first. My conversation starting skills are on the lacking side and it is my long-formed habit to wait for other people to start the conversation.
Now, with most people, this is not a problem. People will choose a topic and I'll go along (I'm also a big fan of joining conversations that are already going). The same cannot be said for my roommate. She is also an introvert, and also tends to wait for other people to start conversations. Do you see where this is going? If you didn't know that we were friends and watched us in our apartment, you would think that we were strangers who got along well enough to live together peacefully. When we're at school or out in other places, or there are others around, we talk well enough. But as soon as we're in the apartment, there is hardly any conversation. Obviously, I'm not expecting that we talk all the time. But we hardly have casual conversations about stuff. For all of last term, we wouldn't say anything to each other in the morning as we ate breakfast. Sitting at the same table. Across from each other. That has changed slightly, because I started saying good morning when I emerged from my bedroom. Even then, she'll say it back, and we'll go on without saying anything else. We don't even say anything as we get ready to walk to school. We just watch each other and the clock, getting ready when we know the other is ready to go. It makes me a little sad, especially because in three weeks, I probably won't see her often at all.
And I know that there is an obvious answer to this problem: talk to her. Strike up a conversation. But this is where I'll ask you to recall my earlier point that my conversation starting skills leave something to be desired. Our devices definitely has something to do with it. About 90% of the time, one of us has our headphones in, which naturally prevents conversation. I had hoped that saying 'good morning' would be enough to get a chat going over breakfast, but to no avail. Maybe my goal this week will be to start a real conversation over breakfast. This will also help me in my goal to get out of bed at a decent time, since I've been pushing that to the closest I can get it to 9AM. Wish me luck.

T-28 Days

Well it's been a while, hasn't it? Certainly not the longest period I've gone without blogging, but I had a bit of a good run going there.
Reading week was good. I didn't have any work to do, so I could just relax. I managed to keep busy though, meeting up with friends, finishing my camp quilt, and playing lots of board games.
The main thing going on with me right now is the fact that there are 4 weeks of school left. Ever. It's kind of hard to believe. We've started our final group project of our university careers. We were allowed to choose our groups this time, but I ended up staying with the same group I was with earlier in the term because we worked well together. Our project is to encourage interactivity in a public space in Stratford. I think it will be good. The hardest part will be completing everything in the 4 weeks left (our first project got 7+ weeks).
After that, it looks like I'll be moving to Toronto after I graduate, so I should probably start looking for a place to live there. Whenever I've visited Toronto, I've always though I wouldn't want to live there. There's so much going on and I find it overwhelming. That changed a little bit last summer when I lived in Mississauga, but still wouldn't be my first choice. But now that I'm moving there, I'm excited. I don't want to stay there forever, but I think it will be a lot of fun. And I can finally go to all the cool things I see going on through various forms of social media. And I'll be living in the same city as Alison again, so it will be nice to be able to see her more often again.
Yesterday the campus hosted a day-long conference about blending business and design. It was really well done. Lots of interesting speakers, good food, and great networking opportunities. I got to meet a UX designer from Indigo, which was probably my favourite part. It was a long day with lots of sitting though. They had an 'after party' at the end of the day at the Parlour Inn just down the street. I was surprised, because the Parlour is a pretty nice place. We went, but not a lot of the mentors and speakers came, so there didn't seem to be much points for us to be there. We left early (after eating the food).
Not a lot else going on. The 3D printer is up and running again, so I've been getting a few things printed before it either breaks again or the term ends. I printed a settlers of catan piece, since one of my wooden pieces had chunk missing.