Years ago, before I was married, I was riding in a car with a guy I was dating.\u00a0 As we sat in silence together driving along the highway for quite some time, I couldn\u2019t help wondering what was going on in that head of his.\u00a0 He was quiet, just staring out the front window at the car ahead of us.\u00a0 So I decided to ask him.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhat are you thinking about?\u201d I asked.\u00a0 \u201cNothing\u201d he replied. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to think about nothing\u201d I said \u201cJust tell me what you are thinking about?\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cNo\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cWhy?\u201d I asked.\u00a0 \u201cBecause you will think its stupid\u201d, he replied.\u00a0 \u201cNo I won\u2019t!\u201d I answered,\u00a0 \u201cJust tell me\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cFine\u201d he said, \u201cI was thinking that the symbol on that back of that Toyota looks like a guy wearing a cowboy hat\u201d.\u00a0 I looked at him in disbelief, but it was clear he was telling the truth.\u00a0 \u201cSee\u201d he said, \u201cand that is why we men don\u2019t want to answer that question when you women ask us.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I am always amazed at how different men and women are when it comes to, well, pretty much everything.\u00a0 As I sat tonight trying to have a conversation with my husband, who clearly wasn\u2019t listening to anything I was saying, I finally stopped and asked \u201care you listening to me\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cWhat?\u201d he said.\u00a0 I was clearly frustrated with him.\u00a0 \u201cSeriously?!?\u201d I responded.\u00a0 His next comment was \u201cMen are always in trouble with women for stuff we have no idea about what is even going on.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou weren\u2019t listening to me\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cI was totally listening\u201d he answered.\u00a0 \u201cThen what did I say?\u201d I asked.\u00a0 He sat staring with a blank look on his face and then said \u201cWell, whatever you said it was fine.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tonight\u2019s experience reminded me of a story I heard long ago that is the epitome of the differences between men and women. I had to look it up so I could share it with all of you \u2013 it\u2019s a hilarious yet sad story because it is simply too true!!!\u00a0<\/p>\n
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN<\/span> <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Let’s say a guy named Roger is attracted to a woman named Elaine. He asks her out to dinner; she accepts; they have a pretty good time. A few nights later he asks her out again; and again they enjoy themselves. They continue to see each other regularly, and after a while neither one of them is seeing anybody else.<\/p>\n And then, one evening when they’re driving home, a thought occurs to Elaine, and, without really thinking, she says it aloud: “Do you realize that, as of tonight, we’ve been seeing each other for exactly six months?”<\/p>\n And then there is silence in the car.<\/p>\n To Elaine, it seems like a very loud silence. She thinks to herself: I wonder if it bothers him that I said that. Maybe he’s been feeling confined by our relationship; maybe he thinks I’m trying to push him into some kind of obligation that he doesn’t want, or isn’t sure of.<\/p>\n And Roger is thinking: Wow! Six months.<\/p>\n And Elaine is thinking: But, hey, I’m not so sure I want this kind of relationship, either. Sometimes I wish I had a little more space, so I’d have time to think about whether I really want us to keep going the way we are, moving steadily toward… I mean, where are we going? Are we just going to keep seeing each other at this level of intimacy? Are we heading toward marriage? Toward children? Toward a lifetime together? Am I ready for that level of commitment? Do I really even know this person?<\/p>\n And Roger is thinking: So, that means it was… let’s see… February when we started going out, which was right after I had the car at the dealer’s, which means …let me check the odometer… Whoa! I am way overdue for an oil change here.<\/p>\n And Elaine is thinking: He’s upset. I can see it on his face. Maybe I’m reading this completely wrong. Maybe he wants more from our relationship, more intimacy, more commitment; maybe he has sensed, even before I sensed it, that I was feeling some reservations. Yes, I bet that’s it. That’s why he’s so reluctant to say anything about his own feelings. He’s afraid of being rejected.<\/p>\n And Roger is thinking: And I’m going to have them look at the transmission again. I don’t care what those morons say, it’s still not shifting right. And they better not try to blame it on the cold weather this time. What cold weather? It’s 87 degrees and this thing is shifting like a garbage truck, and I paid those incompetent thieves $600.<\/p>\n And Elaine is thinking: He’s angry. And I don’t blame him. I’d be angry, too. I feel so guilty, putting him through this, but I can’t help the way I feel. I’m just not sure.<\/p>\n And Roger is thinking: They’ll probably say it’s only a 90-day warranty… idiots.<\/p>\n And Elaine is thinking: Maybe I’m just too idealistic, waiting for a knight to come riding up on his white horse, when I’m sitting right next to a perfectly good person, a person I enjoy being with, a person I truly do care about, a person who seems to truly care about me. A person who is in pain because of my self-centered, schoolgirl romantic fantasy.<\/p>\n And Roger is thinking: Warranty? They’d better not say its only a 90-day warranty.<\/p>\n “Roger,” Elaine says aloud.<\/p>\n “What?” says Roger, startled.<\/p>\n “Please don’t torture yourself like this,” she says, her eyes beginning to brim with tears. “Maybe I should never have… Oh my, I feel so… (She breaks down, sobbing.)<\/p>\n “What?” says Roger.<\/p>\n “I’m such a fool,” Elaine sobs. “I mean, I know there’s no knight. I really know that. It’s silly. There’s no knight, and there’s no horse.”<\/p>\n “There’s no horse?” says Roger.<\/p>\n “You think I’m a fool, don’t you?” Elaine says.<\/p>\n “No!” says Roger, glad to finally know the correct answer.<\/p>\n “It’s just that…it’s that I…I need some time,” Elaine says.<\/p>\n There is a 15-second pause while Roger, thinking as fast as he can, tries to come up with a safe response. Finally he comes up with one that he thinks might work. “Yes,” he says.<\/p>\n Elaine, deeply moved, touches his hand. “Oh, Roger, do you really feel that way?” she says.<\/p>\n “What way?” says Roger.<\/p>\n “That way about time,” says Elaine.<\/p>\n “Oh,” says Roger. “Yes.”<\/p>\n Elaine turns to face him and gazes deeply into his eyes, causing him to become very nervous about what she might say next, especially if it involves a horse. At last she speaks.<\/p>\n “Thank you, Roger,” she says.<\/p>\n “Thank you,” says Roger.<\/p>\n Then he takes her home, and she lies on her bed, a conflicted, tortured soul, and weeps until dawn.<\/p>\n When Roger gets back to his place, he opens a bag of Doritos, turns on the TV, and immediately becomes deeply involved in a rerun of a tennis match between two Czechoslovakians he never heard of. A tiny voice in the far recesses of his mind tells him that something major was going on back there in the car, but he is pretty sure there is no way he would ever understand what, and so he figures it’s better if he doesn’t think about it.<\/p>\n The next day Elaine will call her closest friend, or perhaps two of them, and they will talk about this situation for six straight hours. In painstaking detail, they will analyze everything she said and everything he said, going over it time and time again, exploring every word, expression, and gesture for nuances of meaning, considering every possible ramification. They will continue to discuss this subject, off and on, for weeks, maybe months, never reaching any definite conclusions, but never getting bored with it, either.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Roger, while playing racquetball one day with a mutual friend of his and Elaine’s, will pause just before serving, frown, and say, “Norm, did Elaine ever own a horse?”<\/p>\n And that’s the difference between men and women.<\/p>\n ——–<\/p>\n Hopefully that story made you smile (while crying a little on the inside).\u00a0 Have a great weekend everyone!\u00a0 I LOVE WEEKENDS!<\/p>\n ~Amy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Years ago, before I was married, I was riding in a car with a guy I was dating.\u00a0 As we sat in silence together driving along the highway for quite some time, I couldn\u2019t help wondering what was going on in that head of his.\u00a0 He was quiet, just staring out the front window at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[287,645,650,646,361,13,649,285,535,11,284,544,647,648,125],"class_list":["post-2622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-communication","tag-conversation","tag-dating","tag-difference-between","tag-differences","tag-funny","tag-hear","tag-humor","tag-listen","tag-marriage","tag-men","tag-relationships","tag-talk","tag-talking","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2622"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2637,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622\/revisions\/2637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}