Monday, February 20, 2006
If you like to yammer, I'll be over there
From my previous post you’ve gathered that a good friend came by to visit, with their toddler in tow. Now, these are really nice people, but DAMN do they drain the energy right outta you! They finally left yesterday and afterwards, my sweetheart and I both sighed with relief, “Thank god, I thought they’d never leave!"
Do you know the difference between talking and yammering? If you’re unclear, allow me to elaborate. Talking entails you describing something or making a point, then listening to someone else as they give you feedback. It’s known as conversation and can be very entertaining. Yammering, on the other hand, is prattling on and on about topics your audience cares nothing about, barely listening to feedback, and then pressing on with more uninteresting topics. This not entertaining.
My friend and her husband are both teachers, so maybe this is why they both love to yammer. They’re used to talking at students for hours with minimal feedback. I don’t even think they realize they’re doing it. For two days we had to put up with the following:
From the mom: “Blah blah blah so my students said blah blah and then I had them read this book blah blah and it was so funny! I teach AP English so blah blah blah blah. Did you hear about that teacher we had in high school? Blah blah blah! Isn’t that freaky?” Multiply this by several hours.
From the dad: “What year is your Tivo? Really? Blah blah blah our Tivo’s hard drive died and blah blah blah. Did you know you can blah blah and then if it dies again all you have to do is blah blah blah blah and never have to buy a new Tivo again. Isn’t that cool? So do you watch blah blah? Oh you don’t have cable. How about blah blah? Oh that’s on cable too? What about blah blah? You should really watch blah blah blah it’s so awesome.” Multiply this by a few hours.
From the kid: Now, it’s a given that the toddler will annoy me. I will give the little tyke credit for not going bonkers over the chihuahuas. They are like walking teddy bears and kids go bananas over them. She didn’t even blink when they were barking like rabid monsters at her. The look on that little girl’s face was something like, “Huh, dogs. They’re kinda loud.” To help keep this child with the severe short attention span occupied, the parents brought a wagon-load of toys, and brought them all into the house. Ugh. Okay, that would be fine if the kid actually cared about its toys. But no, a wagon-load of toys to choose from and she decides she would rather reorganize my DVD shelf. I figure those things are tough, so I let them since the mom is supervising. Well, after they leave I clear off the table and I find one of my Sex and the City DVDs sitting there… with its cover half torn off. WTF?? Now, maybe it’s just me, but if I was a parent and my little brat did that, I would either fess up and apologize, or put the thing back onto the shelf and hope no one notices. But no, they leave it in the middle of the table for all to see, so I know it was them.
What is wrong with these people?? These are my friends? It’s no fucking wonder I prefer to spend my days alone with my honey. At least I have today to that. I guess presidents are good for something.
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