Awkward / Not Awkward

There’s another stay-at-home dad that I run into fairly often. We’ve had a few conversations, over the last few years. When we first started talking, I got the impression that he didn’t really like talking to me. He was nice enough, but in later run-ins, he was civil, but short. Fine.

Recently, we’ve been talking more, and it seems less like we’re talking just to be nice.

I explained this to my wife who concluded that, “maybe he’s just awkward.” I started to respond, and she cut me off and said, “actually awkward. Not like you. You think you’re awkward, but you’re not.”

I started to think that she didn’t know what she was talking about and explained that maybe she’s the kind of weirdo who is into my brand of awkwardness and she told me that she has asked multiple people if they thought I was awkward, and none of them thought that I was.

If asked, my wife would happily tell the story of how she nearly broke up with me early in our relationship because speaking to me on the phone was difficult. I was, let’s say, awkward. Her friend talked her out of it because I seemed decent enough, and the phone thing was less of an issue in 2010 than it would’ve been in earlier years. And that’s true. Thank goodness for Gchat for making me more palatable than the phone and saving my budding relationship.

Who did she ask? She said she asked everyone. I mean, probably not everyone, but a lot of our friends.

I don’t know. I’ve got 40+ years of memories of me accidentally saying weird shit to people. I’ve asked multiple people if they knew where they were from.

Literally. Not even joking. When getting to know someone. I’ve said, “Oh, where are you from. Do you know?”

Hahaha, I misspoke. The first time I did that, they responded, “Yeah, I know where I’m from,” with a chill in their voice. And you know what? Reasonable response. Can’t blame you, even a bit.

Well, surely I’ve made a mental note not to do that again, right? I totally have. At least one other time. These are the times I remember. Who knows what horrors I’m repressing?

Anyway, I love my wife immensely, but she might be full of shit on this one.