Word Econom....Ooohh, Shiny Thing!

You might have noticed that I haven’t spoken of Mr. Damn in the past few days. This is because there’s nothing to speak of as he is currently only accessible by email. It’s funny how I have a lot less to complain about when I can’t really contact him. Well, I can send him email but I’ve learned that he needs word economy in an email. If an email doesn’t have a clearly defined point with information that was vital for him to know then he gets bored around the third or fourth sentence and you lose him to whatever shiny object happens to be lying near the computer.

I am not good at word economy. To further exacerbate the problem, I tend to write when I have something to get off my chest, like feelings and stuff. He doesn’t know why I need to share these things, but if I must absolutely tell him how I feel, he cannot understand how I can turn, “I’m frustrated” into a three page essay. He doesn’t see how understanding each little nuance of my day will bring us closer together instead he thinks I’m just trying to frustrate him too by eating away at time he could be spending playing with the shiny things around his desk…er…working.

Having a conversation with him isn’t that much different really. He has adult ADD so if he’s gone a little skimpy on his medication lately, you could lose him mid-sentence to a fork. I’m not kidding, it’s happened. Don’t think I haven’t been tempted to reach across the table and take away all of his silverware until I’ve finished saying what I needed to say. Often you can see that before you’re finished speaking he’s already on a different subject in his head and you just have to make a mental note to come back to this one later. It’s kind of like that game Perfection where you try to get all the pieces in before the timer goes off and throws them all over the room.

I rarely send him email anymore (or wear flashy jewelry when I see him). If I do send him an email, I have to keep it as brief as possible and put all the important stuff in the first couple lines and just keep my fingers crossed that there’s nothing shiny too close to his computer.