Depending on what [topic] is, prepare yourself for a 30 minute rant that I have prepared several weeks in advance.

Let’s talk about you instead, we will both take more pleasure in talking about you, not that I will be about to follow the conversation, but I’m very good at encouraging you to continue it. And I won’t feel like I’m wasting your time/questioning if you’re truly engaged. But give me the smallest opportunity and I’m railroading you down paths you certainly were never expecting.

I have taken to asking people if it’s a genuine question or if it’s just small talk. Obviously the former leads down a dark hole of all the things which are affecting me and you will not escape.

“Normal” is subjective.

Also, I’m not at work, so I don’t want to talk about work.