Communication Communication Communication

We learn from a very young age that we start learning about communication. From our parents bribing up with various enticing things to get us to talk when we are babies, to the various enticements to STOP talking when we are little kids, then again with the bribes when they want to know where we were on Friday night when you are a teenager. Some how communication is supposed to get easier when you are an adult, because at this point, through all the dangling carrots, theoretically we should have learned something right?

Still my husband and I struggle, as we do with the kids, as they do with us, as we all do with our families and so on and so on right into the frustration station. (wasn't that one of those 70's learning songs on sesame street along with conjunction junction?lol)

My husband has a habit of carrying on delightful conversations in his head, and then only saying the last few words out loud...clearly unaware that he hasn't clued me in to what "we" are talking about. This can cause major conflagrations such as....

Me: "Does my butt look big in these Jeans"

Jamie: "...Enormous and we are going to have to figure it out"

(which was the end of the sentence, "Our debt is getting enormous and we are going to have to figure it out")

This could lead to husbands being impaled with various shoes and hangers as they come flying out of the closet at a high velocity.

I am not at all innocent, as I think that I "communicate" SO much that Jamie has started to tune me out and only hears about half of what I say. I think that Jamie hears me as much as Pepermint Patty heard her teacher "Wah Wah wah wah wah wah" The effect of not being heard very often has led to me forgetting that I am using my "outside voice."

This can be a problem...you know when I say things like "why don't you just move back to the cave you crawled out of" in a voice not quiet enough that the person infront of me who is currently being rude to the cashier at the gas station doesn't hear me.... Then in embarasment I have to look down as though it wasn't me that really said it...even though everyone knows I did... This was a scary moment for me...

I think I should have just said "was that my outside voice?" and made everyone laugh. Although, maybe the pirate, or what ever he was in his leather chaps, wasn't really in the mood for laughter. I only say this because of the inappropriate digit that was shown to me on his way out of the store.

The cashier on the other hand seemed to think that my communication skills were very good, and had a nice smile for me when I paid for my gum.

SO I guess communication is something we still work on even into our 30's. Or maybe it was my patience gene with tourists starting to wear out!