Men and Women

So I was stumbling around the internet (check out stumbeupon.com for further instruction on the concept of stumbling), and found this article that made me smile:

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~an4m/fun/thoughtful-look

A Thoughtful Look at Men and Women




SHE DRIVES FOR A RELATIONSHIP. HE'S LOST IN THE TRANSMISSION

By DAVE BARRY



CONTRARY to what many women believe, it's fairly easy to develop a

long-term, stable, intimate, and mutually fulfilling relationship with a

guy. Of course this guy has to be a Labrador retriever. With human guys,

it's extremely difficult. This is because guys don't really grasp what

women mean by the term relationship.



Let's say a guy named Roger is attracted to a woman named Elaine. He asks

her out to a movie; she accepts; they have a pretty good time. A few nights

later he asks her out to dinner, and again they enjoy themselves. They

continue to see each other regularly, and after a while neither one of them

is seeing anybody else.



And then, one evening when they're driving home, a thought occurs to

Elaine, and, without really thinking, she says it aloud: "Do you realize

that, as of tonight, we've been seeing each other for exactly six months?"



And then there is silence in the car. To Elaine, it seems like a very loud

silence. She thinks to herself, "Geez, I wonder if it bothers him that I

said that. Maybe he's been feeling confined by our relationship; maybe he

thinks I'm trying to push him into some kind of obligation that he doesn't

want, or isn't sure of." And Roger is thinking, "Gosh. Six months."



And Elaine is thinking: But, hey, I'm not so sure I want this kind of

relationship, either. Sometimes I wish I had a little more space, so I'd

have time to think about whether I really want us to keep going the way we

are, moving steadily toward... I mean, where are we going? Are we just

going to keep seeing each other at this level of intimacy? Are we heading

toward marriage? Toward children? Toward a lifetime together? Am I ready

for that level of commitment? Do I really even know this person?



And Roger is thinking... so that means it was... let's see... February when

we started going out, which was right after I had the car at the dealer's,

which means... lemme check the odometer... Whoa! I am way overdue for an oil

change here.



And Elaine is thinking: He's upset. I can see it on his face. Maybe I'm

reading this completely wrong. Maybe he wants more from our relationship,

more intimacy, more commitment; maybe he has sensed--even before I sensed

it--that I was feeling some reservations. Yes, I bet that's it. That's why

he's so reluctant to say anything about his own feelings. He's afraid of

being rejected.



And Roger is thinking: And I'm gonna have them look at the transmission

again. I don't care what those morons say, it's still not shifting right.

And they better not try to blame it on the cold weather this time. What

cold weather? It's 87 degrees out, and this thing is shifting like a

goddamn garbage truck, and I paid those incompetent thieves $600.



COMMUNICATIONS GAP



And Elaine is thinking: He's angry. And I don't blame him. I'd be angry,

too. God, I feel so guilty, putting him through this, but I can't help the

way I feel. I'm just not sure.



And Roger is thinking: They'll probably say it's only a 90-day warranty.

That's exactly what they're gonna say, the scumballs.



And Elaine is thinking: Maybe I'm just too idealistic, waiting for a knight

to come riding up on his white horse, when I'm sitting right next to a

perfectly good person, a person I enjoy being with, a person I truly do

care about, a person who seems to truly care about me. A person who is in

pain because of my self-centered, schoolgirl romantic fantasy.



And Roger is thinking: Warranty? They want a warranty? I'll give them a

goddamn warranty. I'll take their warranty and stick it right up their...



"Roger," Elaine says aloud.

"What?" says Roger, startled.

"Please don't torture yourself like this," she says, her eyes beginning to

brim with tears. "Maybe I should never have... Oh God, I feel so..." (She

breaks down, sobbing.)



"What?" says Roger.

"I'm such a fool," Elaine sobs. "I mean, I know there's no knight. I really

know that. It's silly. There's no knight, and there's no horse."

"There's no horse?" says Roger.

"You think I'm a fool, don't you?" Elaine says.

"No!" says Roger, glad to finally know the correct answer.

"It's just that... It's that I... I need some time," Elaine says.



(There is a 15-second pause while Roger, thinking as fast as he can, tries

to come up with a safe response. Finally he comes up with one that he

thinks might work.)



"Yes," he says.



A BEFUDDLED BEAU



(Elaine, deeply moved, touches his hand.) "Oh, Roger, do you really feel

that way?" she says.

"What way?" says Roger.

"That way about time," says Elaine.

"Oh," says Roger. "Yes."



(Elaine turns to face him and gazes deeply into his eyes, causing him to

become very nervous about what she might say next, especially if it

involves a horse. At last she speaks.)



"Thank you, Roger," she says.

"Thank you," says Roger.



Then he takes her home, and she lies on her bed, a conflicted, tortured

soul, and weeps until dawn, whereas when Roger gets back to his place, he

opens a bag of Doritos, turns on the TV, and immediately becomes deeply

involved in a rerun of a tennis match between two Czechoslovakians he never

heard of. A tiny voice in the far recesses of his mind tells him that

something major was going on back there in the car, but he is pretty sure

there is no way he would ever understand what, and so he figures it's

better if he doesn't think about it. (This is also Roger's policy regarding

world hunger. )



IT'S ANALYSIS TIME



The next day Elaine will call her closest friend, or perhaps two of them,

and they will talk about this situation for six straight hours. In

painstaking detail, they will analyze everything she said and everything he

said, going over it time and time again, exploring every word, expression,

and gesture for nuances of meaning, considering every possible

ramification. They will continue to discuss this subject, off and on, for

weeks, maybe months, never reaching any definite conclusions, but never

getting bored with it, either. Meanwhile, Roger, while playing racquetball

one day with a mutual friend of his and Elaine's, will pause just before

serving, frown, and say: "Norm, did Elaine ever own a horse?"



We're not talking about different wavelengths here. We're talking about

different planets, in completely different solar systems. Elaine cannot

communicate meaningfully with Roger about their relationship any more than

she can meaningfully play chess with a duck. Because the sum total of

Roger's thinking on this particular topic is as follows:



Huh?



But the point I'm trying to make is that, if you're a woman, and you want

to have a successful relationship with a guy, the No. 1 tip to remember is:



1. Never assume that the guy understands that you and he have a

relationship. The guy will not realize this on his own. You have to plant

the idea in his brain by constantly making subtle references to it in your

everyday conversation, such as:



"Roger, would you mind passing me a Sweet 'n' Low, inasmuch as we have a

relationship?"



"Wake up, Roger! There's a prowler in the den and we have a relationship!

You and I do, I mean."



"Good News, Roger! The gynecologist says we're going to have our fourth

child, which will serve as yet another indication that we have a

relationship!"



"Roger, inasmuch as this plane is crashing and we probably have only about

a minute to live, I want you to know that we've had a wonderful 53 years of

marriage together, which clearly constitutes a relationship."



Never let up, women. Pound away relentlessly at this concept, and

eventually it will start to penetrate the guy's brain. Some day he might

even start thinking about it on his own. He'll be talking with some other

guys about women, and, out of the blue, he'll say, "Elaine and I, we have,

ummm... We have, ahhh... We... We have this thing."



And he will sincerely mean it.



The next relationship-enhancement tip is:



2. Do not expect the guy to make a hasty commitment. By "hasty," I mean,

"within your lifetime." Guys are extremely reluctant to make commitments.

This is because they never feel ready.



"I'm sorry," guys are always telling women, "but I'm just not ready to make

a commitment." Guys are in a permanent state of nonreadiness. If guys were

turkey breasts, you could put them in a 350 degree oven on July Fourth, and

they still wouldn't be done in time for Thanksgiving.