Sue Chapter 8: Awaiting her friends

Filed: Sue @ 6:08am on May 19, 2014 No comments yet! :(   Word Count: 682
This entry is part 8 of 14 in the series Sue

Sue

After I got Sue to scream my name a few times, we got dressed and reviewed the apartment.

To Sue’s disappointment, there was noting left to do to prepare for the party, so I made a mental note to let a few things to clean up in the future, perhaps leaving some dirty dishes to wash (even if I am a dishwasher) or a few towels drying in the bathroom.

So instead, we talked.

This time, I didn’t have to only look interested, but also to be interesting. On our first date, I mostly listened, but if I wanted her to be able to talk to her friends about me, I needed to give her some details on my life.

This is where it is tricky. Can’t talk about my past girlfriends. Don’t want to talk about my friends (we are meeting her friends, not mine tonight), Can’t talk about politics, religion or philosophy, so that pretty much just leaves hobbies and work.

Sadly, I didn’t know much about her hobbies and I was too far along in the relationship to present the hobbies I only do to sound interesting, like playing racquetball twice per year (yet I prefer to ride my bicycle, something that scares some girls) or going to museums (while I prefer to read, something that cannot be easily shared), but not far enough to be totally honest.

So that left work, and the delicate game of pin the tail.

Let me explain…

Girls really like it when they have something in common with their boyfriend plus, it makes it much easier for her to think about you during the day.

So, I ask her about her work and try to finds aspects of my work which look like her’s.

The danger however, is to compare the difficult aspects of her work with something you also find difficult but for which she doesn’t see the complexity. You then sound like you are under-evaluating her work and minimizing her efforts, sounding patronizing.

You can do the opposite too, and make her feel useless if at some point, you make her feel like your job is a lot more complicated than hers.

So, I have a trick: I keep my actual comments on our jobs for the end. She talks about the difficulties of her job, so I talk about the difficulties of  mine without falling into any comparisons. She talks about the fun perks of her job, so I mention a few of mine while making it sound like her’s are more exciting.

For example, as a Marketing agent, she gets to use her imagination to build campaigns and try to see her client’s products in a new light. As an accountant for a big firm, I sit with my clients, the other departments to help them maximize their budgets to plan their projects.

She hates it when her clients are undecided on her proposals, and I hate it when my clients (the department heads), are disorganized and can’t produce the invoices I need to help them.

I do not make a direct comment that it is the same, I just highlight an aspect of my work which she might or might not connect emotionally with.

In the end, I just declared: “In short, it all comes down to helping people make more money, you by getting them to sell more, and me by getting them to better manage what they have. But the key, is the human aspect”

She hugged me, declaring that I had pretty much summed it up perfectly and admitted that underneath, we almost did the same job: taking care of people.

Do you know what my secret is? It always comes down to people and money!

Oh, you work the cash register? So you work with people and money!

You are a software developer? You need to understand the people to make your company money! Same with me!

Our society (the people) is capitalist (the money), so when it comes to work, it all boils down to that.

Ok, I can’t mention it for social workers, but I have alternate ideas for those cases…

The intercom interrupted our talk: her first friend was arriving, a few minutes early.

Series Navigation«Sue Chapter 7: The showerSue Chapter 9: Here comes the friends!»

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