A moment ago, I was instant messaging a friend of mine. I was eagerly telling her about the trades and purchases I'm currently involved in. I told her that I just sent payment for my G3 grail (Port-O-Bella, MIB too!), a few G1 semi-grails, Lily Lightly (I'm really excited about her because I love stuff that lights up, lol) and some baits. Over the course of the next few weeks, I'm going to be receiving a total of 13 different ponies in the mail, plus some McDonald's freebies. Considering my collection is in the 30-40 pony range right now, that's a pretty big increase over a short(ish) period of time. And I'm thrilled.

My friend, however, was not. She humored me for a while, giving me generic, bored-sounding, one-word responses. Then she suddenly said "Dude, I'm not trying to be a b****, but I'm not as excited about ponies as you." (I'm not sure if the b-word is allowed here, so I erred on the side of caution and censored it. ^_^")

I was sort of taken aback. She'd always seemed interested before. She'd even found a Breezie under the couch in her boyfriend's mom's house and refused to give it to me because she wanted to keep it for herself.

It occurred to me right then that wow, I actually do talk about ponies a lot. It made me feel a bit self-conscious, wondering how many other people around me smile and nod during my pony stories but are secretly thinking "Alright! Enough with the ponies already!!"

Is anybody else here a little too vocal about the hobby?

I used to talk about them all the time. But its toned down a whole lot.
It is very exciting though to get new ponies in.

yeah i used to talk about them ALL the time. my parents started wondering just how addicted i was. lol
but well now i only get hyped up when i receive a pony i really want n well my bf got used to it. and well ponies make my day when i receive them.
but yeah, i toned down a bit too >.<

I can always tell when I get to babbling too much about them. The person's eyes kinda glaze over and they do a lot of general nodding and uh, uhs. I stop myself before they start snoring.

I see it as, if my friends dont like me getting excited about ponies, then they arent that great a friend, weve all got our wierd querks I work as a security guard, and had to do a night shift the other night, I had picked up a bag of G1's from the market that day, so brought them into work to clean up, the boys dont like them, but know I get over excited about them & tolerate it, to the degree that the actually ask me what new ones ive got recently, and if ive scored any at market ect. some even look for them for me when theyre out & about.

I know that it irks my family & friends at times, but they all tolerate it, and just let me know when im going a bit overboard, I really dont care though, I love them, and if they cant accept my wierd pony habbit, they can go get stuffed

Yeeeeeah I seem to have that problem a lot LOL!!! I always catch myself rambling to random people about the ponies and I have to stop myself ^_^ hee hee!

I do too.. But then I was watcing I heart huckabees and the dude was talking about his fat sad brother that talks about geckos all the time..

BAM! Hit me like a sack of nails!
My dad goes on and on about sports stories. I always listen and try to absorb as much of the story as I can but really I'm just NOT interested and my mind kinda blanks out...I realized that Sports to me is Ponies to my dad...but goshdarnit.. Sometimes I just can't contain my excitement.

If I get asked a question though I can't help but give a thourough answer and I think that mlp is part of my life.. Some people chat about gas prices and kids and other parts of their lives right?...

"How was your day Rachel?"
"Well it was great! I got Lemontreats and Sugarapple who has original smell and Chacha!!!OMG!!! its amazing no?

Yeah.. Maybee I should turn it down a peg(asus??.. XD oh dear..there I go again)

I used to talk about ponies alot. I think I have like one friend I can talk about ponies to my hearts content, but aside form that, I'm a bit self-conscious of talking about ponies...or much of anything else that interests me for that matter for fear that I might sound a bit too egocentric. :\

We all talk about things we are interested in. I guess though it's nice to try and temper it with asking questions about the other person's interests.

But I think your friend could have stated her feelings with a little more tact.

I used to, but not anymore because I knew that it wasn't exactly a liberating topic for most. Saying stuff like "Cool.", I kind of got the drift that they'd rather talk about something else, but my friends always would humor me for a bit at least.

Now (well, when I buy ponies.. which is a rare event lately) I'm kind of self-conscious to that they'd just get annoyed of me.

edit; I understand though how it might be a bit exhausting though. From a collector's view point, I never get bored about talking about collections of ANY sort, but if my friend keeps going on and on and on about a boyfriend or guy she likes.. it tends to get a bit old. So I guess the same can be for people who don't collect?

i had the exact same thing happen to me. my friend who used to love ponies isnt into them anymore and basically did what your friend did. it sucked a lot.

I don't talk about ponies that much with other people, but that may be because my downstairs neighbor is more obsessed than I am with MLP's and I have an outlet for it whenever I feel I need it.

I am however fully obsessed with animals and I probably bore the heck out of most people going on and on about reptiles, indigenous wildlife, different breeds of cats, insects, you name it. I can feel myself over-talking sometimes, so when it happens I'll usually try and tone it down. Thankfully it's one of those topics that people are usually interested in or are eager to learn more, but it's hard not to talk about something you're so passionate about.

I also remember growing up in my teenage years that I had a best friend which whom I did literally everything with. We were both a little dorky and loved collecting action figures, video games, and watching cartoons, we were inseparable. At the age of 18 she had a boyfriend that disapproved of her "behavior" so she let what he thought get the best of her and she sold anything and everything that could have been considered "dorky" and that was the end of it. After that she didn't even want to talk about anything to do with it, so it really bummed me out. We weren't one of those who wore our fandoms on our sleeve, so when she started feeling ashamed of hers, I literally had nobody to share it with. My other friends didn't know how dorky I was in secret, and even today none of them even know about my MLP collection besides my boyfriend and fellow collector friend.

Corpsey wrote:

I do too.. But then I was watcing I heart huckabees and the dude was talking about his fat sad brother that talks about geckos all the time.. BAM! Hit me like a sack of nails!

Oh man, I AM that guy. (at least with the gecko obsession anyway) I have under 100 geckos in my spare bedroom and for awhile they were all I talked about. When my brother saw that movie he couldn't even tell me the plot he was laughing so hard.

Love me, love my ponies. And my Sylvanians. And my books and heavy metal CDs and Stargate DVD collection...

I'm quite sure that most ordinary people are bored by, or don't understand (and don't want to) the things that interest me and I like to talk about. Then again, at work a bunch of friends were trying to talk about why Coldplay were awesome, and I was sitting there was glassed-over eyes! However, I think a real friend should show tolerance for the things that drive you, just as you undoubtedly do to her - as long as we all keep in mind we don't have to talk ponies 24/7. I think it's hard for non-collectors, of anything, to understand how awesome it is to add to a collection, though, but I still think she could support you a little - it's not that hard to politely change the subject to something else after a while if she's getting bored of pony-talk.

Good friends and family will take some interest in your interests, give you more than one-word answers, and politely let you know when it's time to chat about something else!

On the other hand - congrats on your additions to your collection, WE all understand how awesome it is, and that's why we come here, don't we - to talk pony until the ponies come home!

Skimble

I take my friends and family around my house to all my ponies (they are displayed anywhere I can fit them) and tell them about the rarity, country, whatever, of that certain pony. Everyone thinks I am a tatal nut case but who cares.
And there ARE worse things to be addicted to than ponies. Take for example chocolate... LOL!!!

I dont talk to my friends about ponies b/c they're just not interested. My boyfriend and mum listen to me babble on a bit.. hehe thank goodness for the Arena eh