Observations Post #1

I have several observations to share with my reading public about my current experiment.

First, contrary to what I believed, silence is an easy mode to get into. It's kind of annoying to have to write everything down, but the instinct to speak immediately disappeared surprisingly quickly. Actually, I'm finding that I just open my mouth a lot less since nothing can come out of it except carbon dioxide. Of course, because I'm writing stuff down, I say less. I was talking to my dad about the top 5 American entrepreneurs earlier. I had opinions, but we were sitting on opposite sides of the room, my notepad was on the kitchen counter, and I didn't feel like altering either of those things. So I just didn't contribute to the conversation.

We went out to dinner tonight. I anticipated that I would have to write out my meal orders since we eat out a lot (my dad doesn't cook and I don't turn down free food). My dad did not seem to anticipate this experience. He anticipated a meal of him talking to himself and planned on bringing a book. I probably shouldn't have minded, but I was a little bothered. Just because I'm not speaking doesn't mean I'm not talking, you know? I showed him my notebook and he left The Case for Faith at home.

Dinner was entertaining, both for the company and the experiment. I was surprised by the waitress. Because I wasn't speaking to her, she didn't speak to me. It was strange, but I probably should have expected it. Instead of asking me if my food was alright, she pointed to it and performed the "thumbs up" gesture. When she approached the table, she touched my shoulder to get my attention. We informed her that I had laryngitis, so she knew I wasn't deaf. It was just surprising and entertaining to observe.

I still haven't been able to maintain a COMPLETE day of silence and it's a bit irritating. My dad kept asking me questions about the plot of an NCIS episode he walked in in the middle of, so I finally gave up trying to gesture the answers. It's complicated, okay? Also, more phone calls regarding my speeding ticket. On the plus side, that's almost completely taken care of. I'm waiting on one more piece of paper and roughly $200 and that sucker will be washed right out of my hair. I did have one fabulous distraction from my silence though. My girl in NC and I only text. She hates talking on the phone, so she calls me about... once every two months or so. She called today to let me listen to her two-year-old say my name. TOTALLY worth it.