Tomorrow's going to be a long drive. Trying to come up with six hours of topics of conversation for someone I met three days ago is not as easy as it sounds. The things we have in common aren't things I could talk about for six hours.
I'm considering downloading a lot of podcasts and listening to them, but I suppose I should talk to him some of the time. I can't remember what me and my boss talked about for the 24 hours we drove around/through Texas. I remember that twenty minutes into the trip, not even out of Dallas on a Dallas, San Antonio, Amarillo trip he told me "You know what your problem is? You talk too much. You should shut up more." Yeah. That boded well.
What neither of us knew was that the other of us had called the super-boss (his direct supervisor, my skip level boss) and said we couldn't stand each other and there was no way we could survive this long trip together. We really didn't like each other at all. We both thought the other was arrogant, condescending, and there was no way either of us could stand talking to the other because the other was so darned sure they were right they wouldn't listen to anybody else because they wouldn't think anybody who didn't agree with them could possibly have a valid point. We both thought that about the other, and we both said as much to our boss and he said to shut up, go to work, and deal with it.
Fast forward three years and I really like him. He's one of my top two bosses ever and honestly. He's not as bad as I first thought and I think... I hope he'd say the same thing about me. I'm sort of afraid to ask.
I don't expect the person I'm riding with tomorrow for six hours to feel that way about me. I don't feel that way about him. But the part where I can't think of what we'll talk about for six hours really makes me want to call in sick. Maybe I should take my Getting Things Done audiobook. Everybody could use organizational tips right?
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