Let's... TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE, please.

So you get to work, the party, your friend/family's house, the conference, school, anywhere where there are people you haven't seen in days, weeks, months years.  You say "hi", try to make small talk, be polite, wish you were home sleeping, stick around and hope there's food.  People love to talk about themselves, so you divert the conversation back to them as much as possible while casually making eye contact with each and every exit, still waiting for the food, and hoping its good.

Eventually you have no choice, you need to start participating in the conversation or the people around you will think there is something wrong with your state of mind (especially not good in work situations where looking around, down, away and walking backwards out of cubicles only works so many times).

The question "so what's new with you" comes up a few times, you casually say one or a variety of "nothing", "same old", describe something great you recently purchased, a new food you tried, how little sleep you got during the last busy week/weekend.  Diverting the conversation again, you find out the new food they tried, the new purchase they made, the indecisiveness going into another purchase, that their cat got out, and future vacation plans.

It comes back again, in hushed tones.  This time much more targeted, unfair, sure to hit you where it hurts topics you have no interest in discussing again because its all that goes through your head outside of that conversation.  Depending on your specific life situation at the time, the first question out of the ballpark is along the lines of "did you buy the ring yet?", "when is he going to propose?", "how's the baby doing?(followed by unwarranted advice)", "still no bf/gf, eh?", "how's the house hunting, its a buyer's market you know", "hear from any schools yet?", "did the lawyer ever call you back?", "how did the weigh in go?", "what happened with that insurance situation?", "HOW IS YOUR JOB SEARCH GOING?". 

Bringing it back to the start, did they not ask "What's new?".  Every waking moment is spent with thoughts running through your head of how to solve the dilemma at hand, how would an answer to any of those questions not be considered "new" and discussed earlier.  If you are going through any sort of similar situation that is considered life changing by any stretch of the word and you have no interest in discussing it with those of whom only have only briefly heard that something is up, I speak for you.  LETS TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE, please!

disclaimer: close friends and family with sincere interest, you talk to them about it frequently, they know your real situation and how you are handling it, are exempt.