Man-speak

I need other women in my life. We "get" each other in ways to which men just can't relate. We can carry on actual conversations that don't involve sports or cars or "Star Trek."

I dearly love my husband of forty-four years, but we still don't speak the same language. Each of us has learned to cope with the fact that we understand only half of any given conversation, but it has been a lifelong challenge. Part of the problem is that I'm totally right-brained and he is totally left-brained. Sometimes trying to figure out what he is saying takes too much energy, so I simply say, "okay" and ignore him. It's my polite version of the teenage response, "whatever."

You see, my engineer husband prefers to be very conservative with his words, but in the end, we both use twice as many words as we would have if he had used a complete sentence in the first place. Here's an example of a typical exchange:

Me: "Do you want to eat at home tonight or go out for dinner?  I kind of feel like eating out, but I'm too tired to make the effort."

Him: "B"

Me: "Be what?"

Him:  "Choice b."

Me: "Which one was choice b, eating at home or going out?"

Him: "B"

Me: "Going out?"

Him: "That's what I said. B."

I anticipate that retirement will be exhausting. So, I'm already planning frequent lunch dates with my women friends.