A night with the World's Most Boring Man

Last night (Friday, December 11, 2009) I decided to chaperon for an overnight community event. In a way, I guess I am a good choice for things like that, for the following reasons:

1. I am over 18
2. I never have anything better to do
3. I "hate fun"

The exact details of the event are unimportant. It largely involved me serving in the capacity as "intentional kill-joy" for a group of younger people. This is a role I play quite well, for any age group. It just comes natural.

Conversation with adults was sparse for me, as everyone was fairly busy. When there were opportunities to talk, there were unarguably more interesting folks to speak with. Whenever two or more are gathered together, I am the boring one. Whenever it is a miserable soul trapped with me, it is in the best interest of said miserable soul to talk to themselves. Eventually, those who normally suffer me to speak (or suffer from me speaking, take your pick on word usage) fell asleep. Nearly all of us work in education, which means that we are typically in bed by 10 pm and are no math, even collectively, for a group of junior high and high school students who are wired out of their minds on energy drinks and candy.

This left me as the lame old guy in the corner, which is completely fine with me. It game me time to sit and ponder things that I like to ponder between making rounds to ensure that no new life was being conceived on my watch. I got to do a lot of mental logic and math puzzles. I particularly enjoyed working out recursive solutions for the Tower of Hanoi and 8 Queens puzzles.

To be completely truthful, it did not bother me to be excluded from conversation and events. I was honestly content to sit and do mental work quietly on my little puzzles and problems. I can think of few ways that I would find to spend five to seven hours which would be more enjoyable.