Thursday, January 14, 2021

Coffee and Comprehension

After >50 years of wedded bliss, Sue and I still talk different languages and, at times, have trouble understanding each other. At this point, our plight will ever be thus.

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The Backstory

Usually I wake up early and brew a single cup of coffee on our tassimo machine.

Sometime later, I brew a large pot for her as well as for my second mug. At 10 cups, it is large enough for Sue to also consume several mugs.

On the morning in question, I arose later than usual.  Thinking that Sue would be up shortly, I skipped the tassimo and went straight to the big pot.

Of course, she picked that morning for an extra long sleep. Go figure. But still, the coffee kept well, so that is not really part of the story.

Thereafter, followed one of our conversations in which we typically misunderstand each other.

She explained that she had slept in because she had gotten up to visit the facilities in the middle of the night. This is unusual for her as she can usually sleep for a very long time without having to make a nighttime foray to the loo, latrine, commode or whatever have you. I am jealous because such nighttime journeys are quite the norm for me.

Now, wouldn't you assume that she then had trouble getting back to sleep and that is why she slept in so late? Well, even if you wouldn't assume that, I did.

After some time discussing this, I was finally made to understand that she hadn't slept in because she had missed much sleep after her wandering. No no no! It was rather because she had gotten up in the middle of the night and so hadn't, therefore, been subjected to the need to arise at her usual hour.

It took some explaining, but we figured it out.

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This sort of difficulty with communication also happens in reverse, I will say something that is very clear to me but leaves her perplexed.

I don't think we need to get divorced over this, but I am afraid to say this to her, in case she misunderstands me.


15 comments:

  1. But doesn't it in the long run make life a bit of a laugh?

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  2. How I wish I could normally sleep through the night without getting up. When I do make it until morning without having got up on that rare occasion, it feels just like winning the lottery!

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  3. Just assuming what someone else means...it's mostly off somewhat, no matter how well we know them! But when we do understand, that's such a good feeling.

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  4. L O L

    Yes, there are often times Mr Man is listening with full on "husband ears". I'll say no more. Thankfully, I drink tea & him coffee & these days we take care of our own as I can be quite fussy about my tea.

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  5. Lol. The lockdowns don’t help either, AC. Not here anyway.

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  6. Just a matter of semantics, of course. Haha

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  7. It's a great reason to discuss your points of view and communication is the basis of any long relationship. I think it's wonderful that you're still discovering things about each other!

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  8. Bahaaaaaa! This made me laugh! Yes. It will ever be thus. We just learn to make our peace with it.

    Sort of.

    Tim really aggravated me last night. I had to take a break.

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  9. I think this is not an uncommon occurrence when two people share the same space and are together for many years...even more so these days!

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  10. We have that same sort of communication here. :)

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  11. If you only swapped stories with your neighbors, you'd find most marriages like this.

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  12. Miscommunication. I am quite familiar with it as Leah and I have that quite often--lol!

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  13. It's a tough time of life! I hear you about insomnia!

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  14. I wish I didn't have to get up every night, but I do. Sue is an outlier that way. Marriage needs definitely an advanced degree from most of us. :-)

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  15. This is too funny. On top of miscommunication we have the difficulty of Art's hearing loss. And oh yes, we both get up in the middle of the night too. Art is able to get right back to sleep, but NOT me. Aggravation.

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