Date: Wednesday March 6th, 2002
So my husband and I got into this big, well, discussion this morning about the story I told about my ethics class in the last entry. He was absolutely convinced that I had totally gotten the whole story wrong, and that I made him sound like a dork rather than the witty man that he is. (I thought it was funny, but apparently I have no sense of humor, as I've only told 3 jokes in my entire life, according to him.) It got me thinking though, about how unreliable our perceptions can be. Whenever my parents would both tell their own version of the same story, for example, they'd always be completely different. (We always believed Mom more, though.) And it seems like lots of the disagreements I have with my husband have the same kind of base. We're both absolutely convinced that the way we remember it was the way it happened. Well, only one of us can be right, and it's probably usually the case that we're both totally wrong. How do you deal with that? I found that it's impossible to reach any sort of agreement about what happened, even if it was a 10-second transaction, so I just try to focus on what people meant. I guess that's just another example of how it's easier to live in the present than in the past or future.
Speaking of me having no sense of humor, let me tell you one of my few jokes. Christian had put the coffee table up on the futon so that he could exercise in the living room. I had been laying on the bed reading. He wanted me to come out into the living room, so he came in and said, "why don't you come out here with me. We'll even take the coffee table off the futon so you can lay down." And I said, "Why would I want to lay on the coffee table?" Yuk, yuk, yuk. Every time he tells that story he says something about how I just had such a deadpan look and he thought I was totally serious and that's why it was so funny. Well, let me tell you a little secret. I really had been serious. I actually totally misunderstood him. So I guess if I'm funny, it's completely unintentional. I had a test in my software engineering class yesterday. First test of the semester. Let me tell you what software engineering is. All the business majors get together and try to come up with a bunch of stuff that will confuse programmers. They then tack names on it, like "the spiral model." Throw in some nice words, like proactive, and viola, they have made a complete mess out of common sense. There's a reason I'm taking this class my last semester. The snow from this weekend has almost completely melted. It's beginning to feel a lot like spring! Have a good day, all.
