I know very few people that I find more boring than interesting, though even with those few, I like to know what makes them tick and I can usually find something interesting to talk to them about. I'm thinking in particular of a friend of the family and her husband. I was worried when I decided to combine the "kiddie" birthday party with the "adult friend" birthday party for Elizabeth, because it meant that their two sons, and therefore, the two of them, would be in our home at the same time as all our gamer friends. These two are very nice people, but they're very, very mundane.

It turned out that, while they didn't talk much for most of it, my friends did manage to come up with some topics of conversation where they felt comfortable, and the main commentary from the two of them afterwards was, "They're very nice people, but it was like they were talking a different language. I didn't understand a word they said!" (This was probably in relation to nottheterritory's expounding on his idea that Dora the Explorer could be made more interesting by replacing every request for audience help with "Roll d20!" to create the perfect little-kid RPG - and yes, he used the initials. I'd love to go after the licensing for that one.)

Everyone's got a story to tell, and if you can find it and really listen to it, you can understand them. Understanding people makes them interesting on at least a basic level. I'm always wondering what's under the surface. I'm an absolutely normal married mother of two kids. I go to church. I have a job that indicates a certain level of intelligence and education. And yet, I have a lot of stories I could tell that do not fit the picture drawn in those sentences.