Thankful on Day 6

As I thought would probably be the case, the hardest part of writing down what I'm thankful for is picking exactly which thing to choose. Today I'm going to try to put into words why I am thankful for those who get me. The other day I made a comment on fb about Jake's assertion that the reason that I find the show The Big Bang Theory funny is because it is a nerd show and I, clearly, am a nerd. Another day this week, a fb friend made reference to TBBT on his fb & so I said to Jake "My fb friends also think that TBBT is very funny." His response, "Uh, right, because your friends are nerds." The facebook nerd-friend community is a new way for him to scoff at my nerdness. It has been a long running understanding at my house that when I am talking to my friend Jami on the phone we are having "nerd conversations" using "nerd words". He really doesn't mean any of this in a negative way. I think what he really means is "I don't get you when you are on a nerd rant, please call someone who does." Jami is a go-to in that situation. (She also listens to my political rants and answers my, albeit rare, grammar questions.)

The cool thing about the modern era is that I don't even need a telephone to commune with those who totally get me. Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg, thank you. When I make a comment about politics, I know there are people on my friend list who will get it AND, best of all, give me feedback on my comment. When I make a vague reference to some nerdy show or old movie or maybe TLOTR, someone out there will both understand the reference & then add to it. It's like magic. Somehow my sarcasm translates even without facial expressions or tone of voice.

I explained to someone today that I am the odd duck in my family. All of my siblings are science people who grew up to be medical people. I'm the lone weirdo social science sibling. Of course, the answer I got to this was "it takes all different kinds of people & their talents"... Ya, ya. But sometimes, it gets lonely if those who you spend the most time with or who are closest to you or are married to just don't get you. They get parts of you. They try to get you. They love you and listen to you (if they have to), they think you're smart. BUT they can't really commune with you on that special nerd wavelength. The one where they get why you have a image of the writing on the inside of The Ring as the wallpaper on your phone. Or why you have (and regularly use) aps for the NYT, WaPo, The Guardian, WSJ, Real Clear Politics, Drudge and The Economist.

Something occurred to me yesterday while driving with Jake to Chloe's far away CC meet. When I showed him the completed craft that I had been working on his response was "It is very symmetrical. Evenly placed." Huh? The other day at a store he saw a cool metal owl thing and said "I like owls. I think they look cool." My response "Hmmmm. They make me think of Athena." Huh? What I realized is that I give him nerd answers and he gives me art answers. He didn't say that the craft was cute. I didn't say that owls were cool looking.

Yes, everyone has their own talents and interests. Sometimes we need to be with people who get us so we don't feel crazy or alone or lonely. Sometimes it's just necessary to be validated. I'm thankful today that I don't have to feel alone in my own brand of quirky nerdness.