Her Diary, His Diary

This explains about 98% of male-female conflict:

Her Diary:

Tonight I thought my husband was acting wierd. We made plans to eat at a fancy restaurant for dinner. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset that I was a little bit late arriving, but he never said anything about it. Conversation wasn’t really flowing, so I suggested we go somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed, but he didn’t say much along the way. I asked him if I had done something to make him so upset and he said “I’m not upset. You didn’t do anything wrong.” On the way home, I told him I loved him and he just smiled at me. Then he kept driving. He never said a single thing on the way home and when I tried to engage him in conversation, his answers were really short. I can’t explain his behavior; I don’t know why he didn’t say “I love you” back. When we got home, I was sure I had completely lost touch with him. He just sat down on the couch and watched television for an hour without saying anything. All he did was stare straight ahead. Finally, when the silence got too much, I decided to go to bed. About 15 minutes later, he too came to bed, but once again didn’t say anything. He seemed so distracted and distant. Within a few minutes, he fell asleep. That’s when I lost it. I began to cry, wondering why I had lost him and trying to figure out how to rekindle our marriage. I’m almost sure he is thinking about someone else. I feel so lost.

His Diary:

Motorcyle won’t start…can’t figure out why.

Boundary Violations – Part 2

Ken was hurt; again. His wife Vivian and her two friends had gone to the Mall and then out for a couple of hours of “girl time”. This was the third time this month they had spent the entire evening  together. For the second time, they had chosen Ken and Vivian’s “date night” to do it on. He was hurt and wanted to hurt in return.

Vivian finally came home about 11 p.m. Ken was waiting for her as he stewed in his frustration. He knew she would be exhausted the next morning when she had to get up at 5:30 for the morning commute into the city. That meant she would be tired the next few evenings. Any time he had hoped to spend snuggling and being affectionate together during the week was ruined.

But Vivian saw things very differently. For years, Ken had reserved three evenings a week for golf with his two high school pals. They did everything together and usually excluded their wives when they went out to the golf course. Afterwards, they would spend an hour or so in the clubhouse telling jokes and talking over the events of their lives. By the time Ken got home, he didn’t feel like talking and usually gave her leftovers. But as the men grew older, they slowly grew apart and Ken found himself at home more often. He didn’t really want to be there, so he just sat around and made Vivian be his entertainment. At first she soaked in the attention. But she realized that he would never be satisfied with the attention she gave him (he constantly complained about everything she did wrong). She decided that it would be better if she got away from him some evenings. Leslie and Joan were just the tonic she needed. They also loved to shop and drink tea. All Ken wanted to talk about was sports.

Ken and Vivian were ready that evening for a clash of major proportions. Ken had it planned in his mind. He would simply tell Vivian how he felt and allow her room to change her mind for him. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Later, when he was licking his wounds, he wondered why things had gone so wrong. He thought over the conversation they had when she came in the door:

Ken: “A little late for a mother of three to be coming in don’t you think?”

Viv: “Not really. I don’t have a staff meeting in the morning, so it’s not that late really.”

Ken: “Did you forget about our date night?”

Viv: “What date night are you referring to Ken?”

Ken: “The date night we said three years ago at the marriage retreat we would never violate. You violate me every time you go out when we’re supposed to spend the time together.”

Viv: “Oh, I see. Like last week’s date night. When we had to watch the World Series