Good One.

I'm going to be completely honest, I am often envious of people who can come up with clever things to say in conversation...in a timely manner. I consider myself creative enough, but usually it takes me a liiiittle too long to think of something witty. This is probably why my most frequent comebacks are "yeah, well, you know what?"(I never once have had an answer to this question in mind; I always hope people will just accept it as rhetorical/intimidating) and "whatever!" (soooo Stephanie on "Full House," I know.)

Basically, my point is, in various convos throughout my day, I often sarcastically think to myself, "good one," in the same accent/manner as Steve Martin in the Pink Panther. An example of this in my life recently:
--A fisherman came through my line one early morning at Walmart, and I was making some simple small talk about whether he thought it would be a prosperous day or not. I wanted to say something clever (cue: dun dun dun) to bid him good luck, which almost led me to say "break a leg," but thankfully I remembered that was merely a theater phrase. So, unfortunately, I attempted to spin this phrase into fisherman-applicable-lingo, which came out: "well, I hope you hook a weed!" He gave me a funny look and said, "thanks?" before walking away. See it's supposed to be clever, because "break a leg" is the opposite of what actors want to happen, and thus "hooking a weed" brings good luck as it's not supposed to happen while fishing either. Get it, get it? I know, *cricket noises.*

--The infamous "I'm excited" incident (pre-Spring Break). I walked up to meet the director of Ambex (my study abroad program), all ready to say my mentally rehearsed line. But before I could say anything, he said: "Hi, Joy! I recognize you from your application. You must be one of the English Communication majors. We're looking forward to having you this fall!"
My mind blanked. There was nothing running through my head. This was not a good (or sensible) moment for awkward silence. Cue my response: unfortunately, the only thing I could muster up was a rather emphatic, "Yeah! I'm excited!" Cue him smiling and nodding awkwardly. Good gravy, It was my turn to talk again? I forgot everything I wanted to ask him about Germany. And for some reason (God knows we all need more humility, maybe?) the only thing I could think to say again was, you guessed it: "I'm looking forward to everything this fall because...I'm excited!" Thankfully, I proceeded to have a somewhat more normal convo with him, but I'm pretty sure there was one more mention of my excitement before wrapping things up.

Now I know you may be thinking: are you okay, Joy? Are you sure you have friends at school? I bet your tours are really...exciting!

No worries, friends, usually public speaking is not this much of a challenge for me. I actually rather enjoy it, and would like to think I've progressed lightyears since my 3rd grade speech, asking the school to vote for me for student government secretary. In my probably 1000 word speech (Apparently I felt REALLY qualified), I'm pretty sure I spoke so fast, the only thing anyone got out of it was: "Hi-my-names-JoyHillyer-andIwould-lovetobe-studentsecretary-becauseIlike-spelling!...writing!...reading!-Okaypleasevoteforme-...thanks!"

***Please don't judge my title as a Communication major based on my (in)ability to have a normal conversation...God does have a sense of humor.