Expectations.

I had a bad morning this morning.

Not just your normal Monday morning either. I had a headache when I woke up, the toilet overflowed in the upstairs bathroom for no reason and I didn't have time to finish my coffee before work. All before 11am.

And then I got to work and remembered that Allie was home all week on Spring Break (cue crazy circus music in the Keller household).

A lot of people don't know this about me, but I am a crier. When I get sad, or mad, or stressed, the waterworks start. So, this morning on the way to work...yeah. Tears.

Since my mom was at work, I called my poor unsuspecting boyfriend to vent. Boy, did he get an earful....

As I'm complaining about all this stuff, and freaking out because I wanted to talk to my mom so bad but she was at work, Chad did the male thing.

Ladies, you know what I'm talking about. Instead of just listening, he started offering solutions and telling me that stressing wasn't going to help me have a better day at all.

Given the mood I was already in, I kinda got really cranky with him. I think my quote was something to the effect of, "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST SIT THERE AND LISTEN TO ME VENT?! I DON'T WANT A SOLUTION, I CAN FIGURE THAT OUT ON MY OWN! I JUST WANT YOU TO LISTEN!!!" (yeah, I pretty much win the girlfriend of the year award for that one...)

Anyways, by that time I had to go take care of the kiddos so the conversation shifted...it came up later though after I talked to my mom (finally!).

This is the texts sent back and forth between me and Chad about it...
C: How are you?
Me: I'm doing okay, got to talk to mom.
C: That's good, how was that?
Me: Good. She listened to me vent.
C: That's good, sorry I wasn't very good at listening this morning...
Me: No that's fine you're still learning to understand us girls!
(Then the super sweet guy thanked me for giving him a chance to learn...awww...)
-and then I said something back that I didn't even realize how true it was until I wrote (well, typed) it...
Me: I can't expect you to know how I think unless you're female...

Then, after I sent that I re-read it...and was thinking (no matter how silly it sounds) "Wow. That's really true. How on Earth can I expect him to think like me? He's not a girl. God made men and women different so we work well together..."

And that's really my thoughts for the day.. Sure, it drives me insane sometimes when I want to vent and automatically the men in my life start giving solutions, but what else can I expect out of them? God created men as the primary problem solvers.

To get frustrated when they try to help is like telling God he made man wrong. And that's definitely not the case.

Chad, because I know you're reading this, this is not your free pass to always offer solutions. You're a good listener. And I like that.

Bottom line: God made men and women different. And I can't expect my boyfriend or any other male in my life to understand what's going on in my head, because they don't think like us girls.

The way we work together is perfectly imperfect, and I wouldn't have it any other way.