I proposed.

She said yes.

What could be more exciting news than that?!

As we told our friends of the news almost everyone was thrilled and happy for us.  Yet there were also some strange and bizarre reactions as well.

“To each other?”

“You bastard, I knew you were going to do that!”

“Are you sure?  Most marriages end in divorce you know.”

But the best one of all was:

“…so anyway about my fish.”

That came from a friend who was graduate student in fisheries.  To say he loved talking about his fish would be an understatement.  His fish were his life.  That’s all he talked about.   After we told him the news, he didn’t say congratulations.  He didn’t ask when the wedding would be.  He didn’t even have a sarcastic or negative comment.  He simply went right on talking about his fish.

While “so anyway about my fish” weren’t his exact words, it became our inside joke.  Our own catch-phrase that meant no less than an utter and complete failure of somebody to listen to the point of hilarity.

Think about conversations you’ve had with people in the past 24 hours.  Try to remember if you were guilty of any of the following:

• You interrupted.
• You failed to clue in on emotions.
• You didn’t ask follow-up questions.
• You were not sincere.
• You rolled your eyes.
• You sighed.
• The first comment out of your mouth was negative or sarcastic.
• The first comment out of your mouth was making a joke.

I’m an insufferable smartass.  I’m constantly struggling with that last one.   I catch myself all the time hijacking a conversation with attention grabbing shenanigans. (but it’s just sooooo fun!).

We’re all guilty being bad listeners from time to time.  Be more conscientious of your reactions during conversations.  You don’t want to be remembered as the “so anyway about my fish” guy.

photo credit: jrgatormojo