Elusive Elocution: A Vexing Vice

Peeves! They get under your skin just a little and suddenly you see them everywhere. What starts as a slight annoyance with un-tucked shirts can warp and swell into a tidy-hemline obsession; until one day you're yelling at one of the "dirty hippies" who don't understand the elegance of a defined waistline. (To be fair, there are numerous waistlines in my life whose sense of mystery I greatly appreciate.) The point is that these things escalate. A few months ago, I noticed that people do not answer the questions they are asked. A yes/no question will be answered with "sure"; a fairly direct informational question about the drive to work will result in a blow-by-blow account of how they woke up that morning. Why is it so hard for people to answer the questions they are asked?

Let's start with the yes/no scenario. A cashier asks if you want a bag...that's a fairly simple yes/no, right? WRONG! Besides the multitudes who must debate the benefits of obtaining said bag, there are those that say "sure". As in: "not really, but to make you happy- yes". I believe a simple "yes" would have sufficed. Why this softening of the answer? Is there a fear that it comes off as an order? Even if it does, so what? Then there's "that's alright" for "no". Does society have such as issue with PC manners of rejection that people can no longer answer such simple questions?

As frustrating as the first scenario is, the run-on explanations of an informational question are exhausting! Example:

-"How was your drive today?"
-"Oh! Well, I woke up this morning late; my alarm clock didn't go off for some reason. Then my hair-dryer shorted out, which is so random 'cause it's new. THEN I found out my cat vomited on the shoes I wanted to wear so I had to go with these old ones which don't really match at all!"

...which tells me absolutely nothing about the drive. People are so eager to discuss the details of their lives that they completely omit the actual information requested. Maybe it's to make you understand the experience better, maybe it's an ingratiating gesture, there may be logic behind it but the overall result at this late phase of my peeve is to make my skin crawl.

Rant complete. Ending wish: for people to learn so enunciate their ideas before my brain explodes from trying to track side-stepping language.