Saturday, February 28, 2009

Broken Ribs are a pain

I found her upstairs looking mighty peeked. Restraining a student yesterday resulted in her having a broken rib. There she sat on her pretend couch grimacing in pain. This couch, is her couch, and it is fine with me that it is just her couch because it is one of those doll couches. When she sits on a big person couch her feet just dangle. There are times I have been mesmerized watching her tiny little feet just dangling. – She is gonna be so mad at me for writing this.
Feeling badly she was in such pain I tried to be kind and nice and all those things a mate should be. And I should say I did pretty good.
First she wanted a Diet Coke; that was easy. Then I asked her if she was hungry. “No I feel nauseous and I am so cold”. Okay, easy a couple of blankets. Tuck in her feet, things were going quite well. The not hungry thing was bugging me though. So, about then I figured she was just in too much pain to really think for herself. She needed to eat. I was sure she had been home all day and had probably ate next to nothing. So I tried a more direct approach. “I am going down stairs to make myself something to eat. I will bring you something.”
“No, I am really not hungry, I am so cold. A cup of coffee would be good” Okay there it was, that place where things start to go sideways. She’s nauseous right? She had all ready asked for a diet coke – caffeine, acids all that bad stuff, now coffee? My head was beginning to twist to one side.
For some really weird reason of which I really can’t explain, I actually thought I had a solution to all these bad choices she was making. “How about a cup of tea?” As I said it, my mind was scrambling, maybe there is something in the kitchen that will be less bad, tea is less bad right?
“No! Coffee, a cup of coffee, I am so cold!”
Sometimes we just need to take ourselves out of the game early. I had this need to fix and it had caused me to lose sight of the main objective; be kind and nice and all those things a mate should be. Without regaining my focus I continued on toward destruction. Grasping for a solution, I said the only thing else I could think of…”well how about just a cup of hot water” I thought she was going to cry.
“Can’t you just please get me one cup of coffee?” She rarely if ever yells or raises her voice. But there is that one tone accompanied by that look. It was now time to get out of the game and sooner rather than later. She might be small and have a broken rib but I am pretty sure that look could accompany her kicking the snot out me. So escape I did – hey it was all that was left. It was my only option.
I made her coffee and did a couple of other small requests without offering my better solutions.
Men, let’s talk - Sometimes it just doesn’t matter that we have the answer or can see a better solution. The right thing frankly becomes irrelevant. Even though our solutions are right and logical there are times it simply does not matter. Right does not equal useful. Yes, we want to understand our women but I am pretty sure that isn’t going to happen. Sorry, men I wish I had better news. D’OH!

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