It happens sometimes. I’m walking through the grocery store, and I run into someone I haven’t seen in a while. It’s always good to see old acquaintances, but I never know what to say anymore.

“How’s it going?” is a frequent greeting. How do I answer that? Standing in Kroger, picking out bananas, and I see someone I haven’t seen in 5 or 6 years.

I sure as hell can’t tell them the truth. Nobody in the produce section wants to hear about my train wreck. My family and friends don’t want to hear about it, I’m not going to inflict it on others. Besides, it would bring up more questions and nobody has time for that with the ice cream melting in their cart. My current fallback is to talk about my kids or the weather. “They’re getting so big!” “How about them Cowboys?” “Fuck it’s hot out.”

(I adjust depending on the audience, the F-bombs I reserve for people I know from church)