common conversations

It's amazing how often I get the same responses from people when they find out what Ryan and I are studying. Here are some typical conversations:

Friend: So what's your husband studying again?
Me: Astronomy. (Technically it's astrophysics, but Ryan has found that when people hear the word "physics" their eyes glaze over and suddenly want to get away.) He's getting a PhD.
Friend: Oh, wow. And you're in school too, right? What are you studying?
Me: Yeah, I'm going part-time. I'm getting my bachelor's degree in Geology.
At this point there can be a couple of different responses:
Response 1: Oh, wow, so you guys must have a lot to talk about/you must have a lot of really interesting conversations.
Response 2: Oh, wow, so you both must be really . . . um . . . yeah, like really, well . . . yeah.
Response 3: Wow, that's great. I'm so glad that there are people that enjoy those kind of things, because I know I could just never be interested in those things because I just don't really like them. But that's so great that you guys can do that stuff.

We find all three responses to be kind of interesting. If it's the first response . . . Um, yes, we do enjoy talking about geology and astronomy together, but guess what, we are both interested in many different topics and we talk about those too--politics, church, parenting, movies, and history, just to name a few. Is that normal, or do most people only talk about what they studied in college? If it's the second response . . . How were you planning to finish that sentence? Nerdy? Smart? Sciencey? Cool? Fond of licking rocks? If it's the third response . . . um, thanks, I think. I'm assuming you're not trying to imply that you don't want to hear me talk about what I do.

When people find out that Ryan does physics, they also sometimes say, "Wow, physics, huh? I bet you do a lot of story problems, don't you?" Not really.

I'm not offended by these comments (I figure they are meant to be friendly and therefore I take them that way), but I think it's really interesting how often Ryan and I have these exact conversations with people. I suspect that there are a lot of people who are intimidated by science and assume that whatever we say will be way over their heads because we're science people. We really can talk about a lot of different things, not just science.

But it is kind of fun to say that I'm studying Strontium isotopes using mass spectrometry. By the way, there's a lot more to geology than collecting rocks. We actually kind of like the rocks because they have a story behind them.