Minor joys

One thing that I really thought I'd never get any pleasure from is casual interactions with strangers. Being in Canberra a fair amount a couple of years ago, after living in a city all my life, I remember getting totally freaked out when random people passing in the street, or in parks, would say crazy things like "Good morning" and "Hello." Naturally, I was all like "WHAT'S GOING ON WHO ARE YOU ARRRGH." I'm still pretty sure that's the right response.

Still, since I moved to a more out-of-town area of this already tiny town of St. Andrews, it's been happening to me all over again, on my daily walk to town. But the scary part is that I've started doing it myself. Or, at least, rather, I've started responding to the greetings in kind. Maybe (maybe) even started preemptively greeting the people I recognise as having greeted me in the past. But what I find really weird is that I get some kind of pleasure from this. Like, afterwards, my mood increases. I feel slightly happier for a few minutes. My affective state improves. And to a pretty severe degree too, though it doesn't last very long. I'm not really sure where this joy comes from. Maybe it's just some kind of "Hey, you managed to navigate that social interaction with aplomb!" feeling, or rather a "That's not something you do usually, well done!" thing. Maybe it will wear off.

Similarly, today I actually sustained a conversation with the person behind the counter at the supermarket. Moments before it happened, I would've thought this was pretty much something I would never do, let alone enjoy. I actually disliked it when people tried to talk to me when I worked in a supermarket, but in this case I did not intiate the conversation, so I'm pretty sure I didn't make an already horrible job that much worse today. Anyway, yeah, again, this gave me a pretty substantial boost to my mood, for a good dozen minutes. WHAT'S WRONG WITH MEEEEE!?!?

In unrelated news, here's a song I like too much by a musician who is too excellent for words: