Sat 17 Nov 2007
Obviously Mr. W’s thinking and the way he handled things at Cirque didn’t and doesn’t sit well with me. So I’ve been analyzing him and his actions in some still-unsuccessful attempt to force things to make sense, as if a Looney Tunes light bulb would suddenly light on top of my head and all the pieces would fit properly again and we’d be back to the happy picture we were just days ago.
So far I’ve had two theories going…
1) He doesn’t understand and therefore doesn’t respond to cultural social cues.
He did say on more than one occasion that he’s “antisocial” because he doesn’t know how to act in a public environment and prefers to be “a loner” and is a “social retard.” So maybe he didn’t get just HOW some guy confronting a strange girl with “is that a PROBLEM?” or pointing at the girl while saying “shut up” repeatedly is offensive, so he didn’t respond the way everyone else instantly did upon reading about it. In other words, others may see the actions and hear the words and say, “Them’s fightin’ words!” whereas he just sees them as neutral responses from some guy. He also doesn’t understand how shushing your girl is condescending in general, and when that shushing is done in front of strangers who are verbally attacking her when she’s just holding her own, it becomes — yes, I’ll say it — a public betrayal. (I just got a mental picture of him rolling his eyes at the dramatic way I characterized it.)
This theory was making sense, until I asked him some questions about it in a roundabout way yesterday when he called me after work to ask me to go over for the weekend. Turned out, he DOES know when a stranger may be silently, on body language alone, challenging him to a fight, stuff like that. But he says those societal cues are stupid and if some guy eyed him down trying to trigger a fight, he’d just ignore the guy and break eye contact. He said it’s stupid to go along with some stranger’s challenge because he broke a guy’s nose at a bar once and has since regretted it. Except when he’s at work, he says, and people challenge him or get difficult and bickerish, he’d verbally and sternly nip it in the bud right away and if the challenger refuses to be nipped, “then I’d jack him up.” Okay, so he DOES know, and he IS willing to get on the defensive to a challenger. Then why doesn’t he do it to protect ME? Which brings me to theory #2:
2) He has to do it so much at work as part of his job in a type of work environment that’s aggressive and bickerish, where he may constantly have his authority challenged, that he’s just sick of having to put out fires when he’s NOT at work. So he’d prefer to sink into the extreme side of complacent and low-key when he’s among strangers outside of his job.
I guess I can see #2 making sense. But I haven’t had the opportunity to run #2 by him so I don’t know for sure. Even if I did run #2 by him, he likely wouldn’t know cuz he doesn’t analyze himself or his actions much, and okay, NOBODY analyzes people like ME unless they’re getting paid or are writing research papers.
When I was running #1 by him on the phone last nite, altho he played along for a little bit, he did get irritated again because he said he didn’t want to go over the Cirque episode yet again. I told him I’m not trying to rehash, I’m just trying to understand elements of his behaviors. He said fine, if I really want to talk about that, then “we can talk about it tomorrow.” So to thank him for agreeing to open up the discussion forum, I finally agreed to see “Beowulf” in 3-D with him at the Imax this morning. He’s been on my ass to see it with him for awhile, and I’d refused to because I don’t want a cent of my hard-earned money to go toward supporting the posterchild for dysfunction, angelina jolie.
So anyway, this morning, we dropped my car off at the dealer for an oil change (I’m used to my cousin, a Honda specialist, doing the oil changes for my Accord for $24. So when I picked up my Lexus at the dealership an hour ago and $170+ later, I decided to never get servicing done at the dealer again. Now I know, and at least I got a free carwash out of it.), had breakfast at an early-opening sportsbar/restaurant, watched “Beowulf,” went to Costco so he could buy groceries, came back, watched “1407” on DVD, I picked up my car, and he still didn’t bring up talking, and I was sullen the whole day. I found myself wondering, “Am I just deliberately hanging onto this anger? And if I am, then why am I? Why can’t I just see it as, he did something that pissed me off, he didn’t piss me off on purpose and was trying to do what he felt was the right thing, I let him have it about how crappily I felt he handled the situation, and he has since then agreed to ‘try to consider my feelings over his training and instinct’ the next time, so what else am I to expect? What else is there to talk about?” Should I just let it go at this point? Oh, I forgot to mention, that earlier he tried to drag me into his bed to nap with him, and I asked if he was really sleepy, he said yes. I got up and said I’d let him sleep, and then he offered, “Fine. Talk.” I said I learned never to have “a talk” with a man when he’s either hungry or sleepy, and that being said, I left him to his nap and came up here to blog.
Man, it’s too bad you guys don’t read my blog much on the weekends. *waiting by the computer for comments*
P.S. It’s been a long time since I’ve been a little crazy, thanks for indulging me. But I am nowhere near as crazy as I or another girl out there could be…
I do read on the weekend…
The reason why I finally commented is because you don’t come off as a drama queen, so it’s logical to me that when something hits you that hard, it should worth the effort to trouble shoot and figure things out. It has always been the case with me – I rarely fight or get upset with my husband, but when I do and if I do, it’s a very strong emotion that I would not be able to find closure until both of us have an emotional talk (we wander around in tangents and ramble on an on in tears, then finally calm down and work out the logic part). I find an unrestrained emotional response from the other person more reassuring than any other sort of response… I hope that helps
idlehouse – re me not being a drama queen, THANK YOU SO MUCH! *sniff* I’m so touched! *sob* *throwing arms around you* haha. But seriously tho, that statement makes me really happy because I really do try to address things logically from different angles before I decide on a course of action, and I’m insulted when people say I’m just addicted to drama, etc. just because I’m hurting over something. I had someone tell me a few years ago that I get angry/scared/feel violated because I “enjoy” fighting, which showed me just how much that person did not get me nor the things done to me.
I agree with you about the unrestrained emotional talks. Sometimes holding things in makes such a huge (irreversable) internal mess that when you finally vomit all the cards out on the table together, it’s a great relief that you can finally start addressing stuff and it becomes a valuable bonding experience, to see how real your feelings for the other party is thru all the junk.
BTW, I love that you finally started commenting. Thank you for all your thoughts and support so far. 🙂
Well it’s Sunday now so I hope you’ve had a talk by now. I remember one time when Bat did something to piss me off. You gave me advice about how to relate to him and go back with an apology and make light of the situation. Is there any of that here? Could you make light of the sitaution and make a joke about how retarded the other couple was? I really don’t think the other couple moved to piss you off…I think it just happened. And I’m sure Mr. W wants as much drama free AWAY from work as possible.
and i’m reading on sunday also! well here are my two cents. i don’t think you’re normally a drama queen either, but perhaps you are analyzing his actions a little more closely because you’re engaged and you want to figure out if this is something you can deal with forever. if it were me, if my future husband is behaving in a way i don’t agree with but his reasons are understandable, then i can agree to disagree and move on. if his reasons for his behavior just don’t sit well with me, then i don’t think i can move on.
with that being said, i also agree with flat and mr. w probably wants life away from work to be drama free. i also see how his training tells him to stop the conflict before it starts and don’t do anything to escalate the situation if you don’t have to. from what you said in recounting the situation, that rude man obviously had problems knowing how to behave in public and was probably a social retard. he’s not worth wasting brain cells on. (referring to rude shut up man)
and i’m reading on sunday also! well here are my two cents. i don’t think you’re normally a drama queen either, but perhaps you are analyzing his actions a little more closely because you’re engaged and you want to figure out if this is something you can deal with forever. if it were me, if my future husband is behaving in a way i don’t agree with but his reasons are understandable, then i can agree to disagree and move on. if his reasons for his behavior just don’t sit well with me, then i don’t think i can move on.
with that being said, i also agree with flat and mr. w probably wants life away from work to be drama free. i also see how his training tells him to stop the conflict before it starts and don’t do anything to escalate the situation if you don’t have to. from what you said in recounting the situation, that rude man obviously had problems knowing how to behave in public and was probably a social retard. he’s not worth wasting brain cells on. (referring to rude shut up man)
I don’t think you are being krazy. This is a valid and moreso fundamental issue that you SHOULD recognize and want to or at least attempt to understand. It could make things easier for future situations that could arise, similar to this ….
it’s been a long time since i’ve been that frustrated about a guy too, but i do know that i was always onto something. i hope you do resolve it somehow though. 🙁
on a brighter note, i also watch tila and recently learned who she was. i had the same reactions! “her face is weird” and “is that really her house?” though i have to admit, she seems to try to keep it pretty real, which i respect.
we friggin watched 3 episodes laste night!!!
Flat Coke – I’m not big enough to make light of this situation. I think doing so would negate the 4-5 days of down-in-the-dumps I went thru. It would erroneously give the message that I was just overreacting to something that he wasn’t wrong on and that I was sorry, when in reality I’m not sorry for my reaction because I feel my reactions were appropriate and I was not wrong. But having put him through 4-5 days of my down-in-the-dumps mood, I decided not to have another talk with him because I don’t know what I’m trying to accomplish by talking anymore, and I think my message got thru anyway. He did offer yet again on Sunday (in a nicer way than the way he “offered” on Saturday) asking if I want to talk, but I told him that it was clear to me he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore and that was okay with me. Plus he was trying so hard these past few days to be good to me when I was in physical and emotional hell.
MS – You’re right about my analyzing him because of our relationship and putting him under the microscope. I’d thought about a different angle last week, like, if I were just on a first or second date with someone and this exact thing happened, would I be as mad? And the truth is, I wouldn’t be. I’d NEVER date him again and I’d write him off as a pussy and tell all my friends about it, but it wasn’t like it would ruin my mood for a week like this one did. But since this is the fiance, I guess I have to rely (heavily) on that his reasons didn’t sit will with my personal ideal world, but that they were logical and reasonable and well-intended in his world.
k – I can’t even tell whether it’s something I “understand” at this point. And frankly, at this point I’m afraid to pull at it anymore, because I’m afraid that if I have that talk with him and he pokes a hole in Theory #2, then I have no excuse for him at all and being with someone who acts arbitrarily or insanely or brainlessly is a bit too much for me to deal with at this point. As for future similar situations, he’s said he’d “try” to act differently and that with this being such an unexpectedly huge thing this time, that it’d be impossible for there to be NO change in his future reactions (his words from the Thursday parking lot talk).
a – same here, been a long time since a guy frustration to this degree. But the last time it was with Mr. W, we reached a compromise and moved on and the problem never returned. So I think in the spectrum of possible relationship problems, this isn’t the worst I’ve had by a long shot, and in the spectrum of possible relationships, this has been by far the best by a long shot, too, so that’s why I decided to just stop addressing it cuz I think this is the best I could get out of him and it’s probably enough.
Oh no, you got the Tila bug, too. Haha. I can’t stand that once you catch up on all the reruns, you have to wait a week in between new episodes.
I hope then, that there is a change for you – the next time or if there is a next time similar to this. until then… carry on and hope that it doesn’t need to be addressed again? …there’s not much more than can be done and I’d agree..poking at it more – could make things worse off.
I think it could get to that point. Cuz it’s not a daily recurring thing that we HAVE address and change immediately or have severe imminent consequences.
then issues like this really do suck!..lose-lose situation….? why beat it to death when things could get worse and yet – why deal with the same reaction and same frustration, each time it occurs… no resolution? agree to disagree????…mmmm
Don’t hate me, but as I was reading your post and got to that special little section half way through where you had Angelina Jolie name and I immediately went to the IMAX website and got show times. I might be seeing it tomorrow and kill 2 birds with one stone and get a Thanksgiving outfit at the Spectrum 2. I know you hate her… that’s why I said don’t kill me! I remember when I lived with you and you didn’t bash her like crazy knowing I digged her, and I think that was super cool! Hope you and Mr. W are doing a lo better and that you are over your bug!
k – well, the “resolution” is his compromise to try to consider me next time.
Vanessa – you’re the most considerate fan of hers. No one’s ever apologized for liking her before! haha! And besides, you were very nice about not displaying all her photos all over the place when you lived with me, which I appreciated, too.
Angelina Jolie was in my town the other week shooting a 1920s movie directed by Clint Eastwood. She said to say hi.
And the sky and trees look nice today, too.
Oh! And you look good too, Cindylou. (Send more bikini pictures.) And intelligent!
And in case you still like me enough to bitch me out (I can only hope), my extension is now either 8555 (voicemail) or 8014 (different office, no voicemail until you tell me how to work it).