Borrrrring!

Sometimes, I wonder whether people in general are just too darn polite to tell me that I am boring. Earlier this week, a co-worker of mine certainly was not too shy to let me know that some of my writing was coming across as being the b-word.

Granted, she later explained to me in person that her comment meant only that she wanted to make sure we try our best to keep our readers' attention spans on the topic at hand, which admittedly has been a little harder to do with some of the historical figures topics I have been tackling lately. Helping to make Joan of Arc, Nelson Mandela, and Simón Bolívar come alive for people who are just learning to read has been somewhat of a challenge.

The larger problem, I suppose, is that I tend to be rather hard on myself and don't always deal well with what may be perceived as negative feedback. It's something that I guess we all struggle with to one degree or another.

Most of you know that I belong to and perform with two different Improv groups. Whenver I get done with a show, the first thing I usually end up doing is kicking myself for the things I could have said or done better/differently. I wonder about the things I did right, if any, and the laughs that may have been courtesy laughs.

In the dating arena, I have seriously tinkered with the concept of issuing "Get Out of Jail Free" cards to my dates when I pick them up at the start of the evening. The idea behind this would be that she could hand it back to me if she, at any point, became bored or wished to go home. I would then comply and take her home, with no questions asked.

Again, I have just toyed with this idea in my head and haven't actually tried it - yet.

Then again, maybe this is all in my head, and I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill. So, what do you think? Uhh . . . is anyone still there?