I really don't understand people who start chatting up random strangers. Since I'm easily overwhelmed by sensory input, I tune a lot of stuff out, including people I don't know, unless I have a reason to tune in... so all people I don't know tend to be practically identical automatons as far as I'm concerned. It's part of the reason I sucked at customer service jobs. If a customer ordered something, walked away, and came back a few minutes later, I wouldn't recognize them. Unless it was one of our regulars. All those mannequins look alike to me.
Now, there *are* contexts where I pay attention to unfamiliar faces, to try to remember them. Like meetups. But the grocery store while I'm shopping is not among these. And in those contexts, I get *really* wrong-footed, annoyed, and/or creeped out by people I don't know trying to chat me up for no relevant reason. It's not quite as bad as it would be for most people being chatted up by a lamp-post or a tree, but it's along the same lines.
Actually, I have talked with trees before... no lamp-posts, yet. But that would actually be kind of fascinating.
This was cross-posted from http://fayanora.dreamwidth.org/1058935.html
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