You say Hello and I say Goodbye

I am more likely to greet someone in the morning than I am in the afternoon just because I like saying good morning more than any other greeting.

I love the exchange between Gandalf and Bilbo in The Hobbit when Bilbo greets Gandalf with "Good morning!" And Gandalf responds, "What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

I hate it when I'm walking along and I see someone I know and they say "hey how's it going" without showing signs that they're actually going to stop to listen to my answer. Do they actually want to know the answer to that question? How am I supposed to respond? Am I supposed to tell them I'm good and then ask how they're doing? That's the polite thing isn't it? If that's true and we haven't actually stopped in our paths to talk, then we'd be shouting by the end of the exchange because we've already gone too far apart.

I expressed these concerns to Joe one day and he told me you don't have to ask them how they're doing, you can just say "hey, I'm good." But isn't that rude??? You're supposed to ask how they're doing back because it shows that you are interested in how they're doing as well. I hate telling people I'm good when really, I may be having a rotten day. But no one wants to hear about your rotten day so that's why everyone says they're good. So really, you may as well just say hi to each other and the same amount of information gets exchanged because saying you're good doesn't mean anything.

That's why when I see someone I know on the street and I don't have time to talk to them, I will still greet them with a wave or maybe even a "hey!"

But if I have time or like the person enough, I will be more than happy to stop and talk.