Today, I accompanied Nicole and Grandpa to the hospital, but before that, we hit Sonic for lunch. Chris drove us and so I mainly used a text box to communicate before we left, and my order and my thanks at Sonic. When we got to the hospital, Granddad tried to make conversation again. This time, I used the notepad.
We went upstairs afterwards and Nicole asked me to walk Granddad around for a bit while she and the nurse sorted out Grandma. This was where it got complicated. I had 20 mins left of the challenge and I had to “make conversation” while we walked the halls. Most of it was nods, points, headshakes and listening. The thing I wondered at the end was this: do people think blowing people with no voice off when they ask a question is them being polite or do they actually realize and just don’t care that their “never mind, I forgot” makes it seem like the answer to their question isn’t all that important, which in turn translates as YOU aren’t important to them?
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Author: M. LeAnne Phoenix
M. LeAnne Phoenix would tell you that the worst time of her life was the two years that she attempted to take off from writing. If you asked her to explain exactly why she did such a thing, you would most likely get the mad attempt to arch an eyebrow like her dad and then a shake of the head as she told you it was unlucky to speak of such things. Suffice it to say, it will never happen again!
Born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas in the mid-1970's, Ms. Phoenix was young and wild (and even free!) during the crazy wondrous decade known as the 1980's and the even crazier but now grungy decade of the 1990's. Music is second only to the muses that live and breathe to fill her mind with beautiful men, and music always helps them to tell their stories. She is never without her iPod or her computer no matter where she goes, although, she does like to hike and take pictures of the sky and the moon, and even the occasional shot of the sun through the branches of a tree.
An avid cat lover, Ms. Phoenix has been owned by many throughout her life, though her current owner is one Gypsy Jo, who really would like for her to step away from the keyboard and pay her some attention! After all, hasn't she earned it?
M. LeAnne Phoenix can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mleannephoenix. As this is her first real foray into the professional world of writing, there will be more social media to come.
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M. LeAnne Phoenix 
I can see you also had a whole bunch of moments of illumination. Such an intense challenge. It will stay with me forever.
As for your last question, I think people think they are doing you a favor by not waiting on your answer. It is a horrible feeling. Like you are being brushed aside, but you are supposed to feel GRATEFUL for it, because they are DOING IT FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.
It pissed me off no end.
Well done. High-five girl, you rocked this.
Same here! I am so glad that I took it! Your introspective blog post helped me to even begin, let me tell you. I know that I will carry that little notepad around forever because the lesson learned was so intimate and life-changing.
And my own answer to the last question was the same as yours, word for word. I felt quite dismissed, discarded, very much like someone shut a door in my face. Inconvenient. Didn’t have time to wait for me to express my words in the only way I knew how. And yes, exactly what you said: I was supposed to feel GRATEFUL because the DOING IT FOR MY OWN GOOD meant I didn’t have to take the time to take out my pad and pen and compose a short answer.
Yeah, I was angry. Could’ve taken Challenge #2 today, BUT Timmy wants us to do them separately. Probably… for this very reason. 😀 Ha.
Thanks for the compliments, and high-five back at ya! WE rocked this. 😀 ❤