Patience and Sincerity:
Jocelin made me FALL OUT laughing last night. She is the epitome of all that his polite and proper, and for all that, one heck of an intimidating woman to hang out with. Last night, she uttered something with the most SINCERE expression on her face and I had instant flashbacks to the time we tried to teach my brother to say "thank you" when he was 2.

We would hand him something and say, "Now say THANK YOU."

Only he knew how this game went. When someone says "thank you," you say "you're welcome." The rest of the words and the context don't matter. "WELCOME," he'd say firmly.

"Nononono," we'd correct him. "THANK YOU."

"WELCOME." He'd re-iterate, as though to a particularly slow child.

"No. I. want. YOU. to. say. THAAAAANK YOOOOOUUU."

He would then sigh dramatically, roll his eyes, then make eye contact to make sure you understood. "WEEEEEELLLCOMMMMMMEEE."

While Jocelyn wasn't the one in this situation that was making the social blunder, the communication disconnect was certainly similar, with me just as flummoxed as to where it all went wrong.



***

Yeah... Some days are just like that.