Energetic

In elementary school whenever the teacher asked us to think of a word that described our selves and stared with our first initial I always chose energetic.
Energetic really does not describe the little girl I was at school. I can't think of an e word that does completely. I was very shy. I spent my time either engrossed (there's a partial match) in my own thoughts or silently observing the people around me. It is amazing the information you can glean just sitting quietly in a room full of people. If you are not looking directly at the person you are listening to they tend not to notice you.
I do much less eavesdropping now that I did as a child. I did love it back in the day. During one conversation I overheard a friend of my sisters said "I've learned that you don't have to worry about saying things you don't want the kids to hear. If you just say them with out pausing or changing your tone they don't even notice". For the record, the topic she was discussing at the time was marijuana. I believe she was telling my sister about an acquaintance, perhapse her boyfriend or possibly her sister, who was making use of it. I don't remember the whole of the story she related, though I certainly listened intently to the whole thing. No amount of even tone and pace could throw me of the scent of an interesting conversation. It was my naiveté that confounded my memory of the story she was telling. I could probably have recited the conversation word for word at one point but details that one does not understand are difficult to retain, and it has bee upwards of 15 years. I suppose that means she was right to some degree.
If I were asked to do that exercise now I think I would chose the word enthralled. When something catches my interest I tend to be so enthralled I engross myself in it as completely as possible. My husband is kn0wn to groan at the sight of me picking up a book or snatching up the computer when I am particularly engrossed in a tale or a topic of research. I'm sure it does not help that even when he has guilted me out of actively pursuing the object of my obsession I continue to think about what ever it is and am not really fit for any conversation not centred around the topic. Poor man, I guess I must be pretty enough to make up for the crazy.