Thursday, August 20, 2009

Man Speak

I have been talking to men a lot recently and while having conversations with the opposite sex are nothing out of the ordinary, these interactions have been more specific, more 'get to know you' oriented and slightly more uncommon.

I feel as though often these conversations are often reserved for new girlfriends or the early days of dating. Even with male friends, the conversations are different somehow, tainted with the threat of what might happen next, the biological implications of the male/female connection.

What was so eery about these conversations was not just the utter lack of sexual implications but the 'uh-huh's.


"So I was walking across the street and-"

"Uh-huh!" accompanied with obligatory head nod.

"And the dog came charging at my-"

"MmmHmm."

"Pant-"

"Yeah!"

"Leg."

I could only assume that this was a blatant attempt to signal that my role in the conversations was to be nothing more than a glorified audience member/ego-stroker, but they continued to engage me in conversation only to inject an "Uh-huh, MmmHmm, Yeah" into every single sentence.

Seriously. It was exhausting.

I have only encountered a handful of these creatures in my life. It is like a rare big-foot sighting or something but in ONE week I have had this happen THREE times.

I am starting to doubt my ability to converse with the opposite sex. They aren't attracted to me - no big. They aren't interested in what I have to say- cool. In situations like this I always find myself monitoring my tendency to babble anyway, making sure I ask plenty of questions to allow them to postulate at length about whatever topic titillates them. But what I don't understand is why they continued to talk to me. To engage in conversation, when they can just as easily walk away. Only to "Uh-huh'!! And so many times! It is just unheard of and the crazy part is that these guys are actually really cool or at least that is what I always believed.

We have interacted in the past but never in such a sit-down, one on one manner.

And so I am once again reminded that I really, really don't understand boys and don't know that I currently have the energy to try.



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