Interlude: Commuting…Then a Rant About Expections

I am too tired to give much of a hoot about proofing today, so proceed at your own risk…

I am tired of commuting.  I am not one who is really prone to bitching, but…for Pete’s sake…I am getting frickin’ sick and tired of my drive.  I mean, I pretty much move along at a decent clip for most of my trip, but it feels like it takes so honkin’ long to get from here to there and back again.  And if I leave a few minutes outside of my narrow window, then I’m guaranteed an extra fifteen minutes or so.  That doesn’t sound like a lot, but tack that on to my normal hour and fifteen or twenty minutes, and you might see why it begins to get to a fellow.  

So, forgive me if I have nothing brilliant to say.  Not that I’m brilliant any other day, but I just got nothing today.

Well, not true.  I did share my latest relationship theory with someone at work today.  Want to hear it?  OK.  So, I think that every single relationship we have, whether personal or professional, profound or casual, goes to Hell in the proverbial hand basket as a result of unfulfilled and/or unmet expectations.  Think about the number of times you and your significant other or you and your sister or you and your BFFF have had a falling out because of an expectation that was unmet.  

To make matters worse, so often, our expectations are unspoken.  There are the few that we actually voice to others; then there’s the much larger percentage of expectations that we keep bottled up.  Still worse yet, there are the ones we keep bottled up because they are SO REASONABLE and SO LOGICAL and SO COMMON SENSE that ANYBODY WITH HALF A BRAIN would have known what you meant.  Right?  Sound familiar?  If you think this only happens between men and women in their private and intimate relationships, you are SO wrong.  This happens all the time between all kinds of people.  Seriously, when was the last time you succinctly and completely stated an expectation to someone with whom you usually have misunderstandings?  How about stated the expectation and ASKED for confirmation of understanding?  It would seem to me that a few simple tweaks in our everyday communication could lead to a far more harmonious and fulfilling life.  

Well, try it at work.  Try it with the boss.  See what happens.  

Yeah, good luck with that!