But before I elaborate I’ll need to explain 4 things that are going to come up during the story
My New Hobby: The Director’s Cut with Bonus Deleted Scenes and Commentary
And this is how I learned about these 4 things.
And, after forgetting the original point after 30 seconds, I will have five new directions to choose from in said monologue, and will only wait for a beat or two before choosing the one I think most interesting/apt, if you don’t first show a preference. Sometimes, I might even have the foresight to prescreen such an ardent, earnest infodump for content. Sometimes.
I’m feeling inferior over here next to Mr. 900 IQ with his 30 second working memory capacity.
My social anxiety would love to give a one word answer and move on, my ADHD/self-doubt/trauma says “are you sure that’s enough? they’ll think you are an idiot and don’t know what you’re doing if you don’t elaborate”
Coworker/friend/loved one: “So why is XYZ happening?”
Brain: Aww yiss. I will anticipate all possible questions and forks in the conversation, say it all, thus saving everyone time.
Brain: Wait. Remember how you’ve been trying to keep it brief? Try that now.
Me: “Well, it was 8:30am after all.”
Coworker/friend/loved one: “Er … I’m sorry what now?”
Brain: They took the bait. THIS IS YOUR TIME TO SHINE
Me, 5 mins later: “… yeah so anyway, what was the question again?”
My goodness, it’s like you’re in my head! I could’ve written this exact comment word for word! I feel so seen and understood :)
SO: asks a yes/no question
Me: elaborates first for 5 minutes, forgets to say yes or no
Haha my mom does this all. the. time. Rarely ever when I ask a yes or no question does she just answer yes or no or anything along those lines.
BUT! when I ask her a question that’s like “would you like [option A] or [option B]?” THAT’S when she just says yes or no! Usually it means she heard the first option and then stopped listening lol.
Me: “Would you like juice, water, or tea for your drink?”
My mom: “Yes, thank you!”
Me:
(Can you guess where I got my super bad ADHD from? Lmao!)
I could probably ask something like “Would you like a slice of cake or would like me to kick you in the face as hard as I can?” and she’d happily answer “yes, please! :D” hahaha!
I always start with a single idea in mind, talk about something related to it for 15 minutes and then forget what the fuck my original point was. Like the other day I wanted to just explain how Portal can display an unlimited number of “mirrors” for the hall of mirror effects if you change a console command, but then went off talking about the momentum and physics of the portals instead.
When my kid hears me start a sentence with “okay, listen:”, he gets a look of terror and regret on his face.
Mid elaboration ill forget what my point was only to say “well yeah… you know what i mean” in hopes the other person reminds me of my point.