Blah blah blah blah

Maybe because my father can take over a conversation and pretty much run it into the ground and that over the years I have found myself, on occasion, doing the same, especially about a subject which is just completely uninteresting, but I've found that recently I just can't tolerate people that cannot seem to understand what a conversation is. They seem to think it's some on-sided monologue in which they expound in intricate detail, every aspect of a subject that really isn't that interesting. Worse yet are the ones who can do so, then go off on some tangent AND find their way back to the original conversation. I'm actually a little bit impressed by them. I also don't know how to handle these people. I've taken to interrupting them in mid-thought and almost summarizing for them. I'm sure that I come off rude, but in my mind I'm trying to 1) alert them that they're droning on and people are losing interest 2) show them that I am in fact listening, albeit not for much longer and 3) show them that we have similar experiences and interest (ie steer them back to the conversation part of the monologue). It doesn't really ever seem to work. So what should I do? I feel it more rude to interrupt and say that I have to go, but what options do I have? It's really been a bit of a puzzle for me as there are a few people in our little village that suffer from this problem. And I feel for them because as I said earlier, I've suffered myself from this. I realise it later when I recall the conversation and think 'why the hell did I go off on that tangent, no one cares!' I wish someone had been there for me, interrupting and alerting me of my selfishness in the conversation. Seriously there should be a sign that we can give someone to say 'wrap it up - let someone else have a chance', because I know I'm starting to come off as a bit of a **tch interrupting people's conversation, even if I have the best of intentions. I don't want to avoid these people, because they're usually very nice people and often very isolated, with no one to talk to during the day, thus the verbal diarrhea when they do meet people their own age (a lot of Mom's suffer from this). So if you're out there and you ever thought you suffered from this - give a think about some kind of word, phrase, signal that we can give each other to keep us from losing people with which to converse. In the meantime, I'll keep my mouth shut - even if I have to sing song lyrics in my head to keep myself from interrupting! taa