Hey, this gives me an idea for a running thread (like Dear T or In Session) -- 'Weird Emotional Encounters of the Third (or Nth) Kind' -- where folks post about all the times during the day/week that they had no idea what to say / react in situations involving emotions? And, others can chip in with ideas? That way we'll have a collective encyclopaedic reference thread to check out whenever we're unsure how to respond? I'm totally serious.

For example, I had absolutely no idea what to say yesterday in any of these really normal sorts of situations -- 1. Folks who were complaining about their (incredibly sucky) jobs; 2. Folks talking about having a fight with their partners. I mostly just stared at them quizzically and made a few sympathetic-sounding-in-my-head-but-mostly-coming-out-as-a-constipated-burp noises (and was largely grateful that they most likely attributed my weird non-response to my being piss-drunk -- problem is I'd have been even more awkward and weird if I hadn't had a few).