“Migraine alert”
Aug 16th, 2007 by Accidental Thinker
I think that’s what the men who have married into my family want to post on the foreheads of their wives. Because it’s common knowledge that when you put us womenfolk in a room together, nothing tranquil can ever come of it. Just a migraine, if you happen to be a man in the vicinity.
Don’t blame my sisters and me, however. Blame the strange combination of genes that endowed every one of us with hearty vocal cords and loud voices that only get louder when we have to talk over each other to be heard.
Such hullabaloo is not without its comedic effects, of course. The soon-to-be newest member of the family actually attempted the impossible last weekend. He tried to tame us with a “talking stick,” in a woefully misguided (but hilarious) effort to force just one speaker at a time. Ha! He’ll learn. The poor guy will definitely learn what his future brothers-in-law already know all too well—that such experiments can only fail, and their only hope for deliverance is a nap in a very distant, soundproof room.
Apparently I’m the worst, with my already high-pitched voice getting ear-splittingly shrill at higher decibels. For a shy girl, I’ve certainly never had problems with projection. At work, people politely close my office door all the time when I’m on the phone, because of course I have to make up for distance with, you know, volume. So for those of you dear readers who have ever been on the other end of a phone call with me, go ahead and confess that you hold the phone at least six inches from your ear when I’m speaking, because I already know. Here’s my little secret—that’s exactly what I do when I’m talking to my sister. I’ll leave it up to the two of them to figure out which one I mean.
The lesson to be learned from this is that if you are going to be around my sisters and me for any length of time, or talk to one of us on the phone, you’d best stock up on the Excedrin. In fact, it just might be a cardinal rule.
I do … agree with your assessment. Not to point fingers, I have had to distance the phone from mine own ear on occasion. I’d never try the talking stick stunt – no matter how funny, but I dare say I had a conversation with one of you sisters about it and was assured that there are rarely any harsh feelings involved with the discussions. I believe the quote went something along the lines of “…we each just want to get our own point across. After all, whoever is the fastest and loudest wins.” Now I always thought it was whoever has the most toys wins, but I could be wrong.
As for the volume control, I’m here to testify that a couple of you only have two settings, ‘on’ and ‘LOUD!!’. I’ll not elaborate on which siblings that covers, as I’m already enjoying the stark comforts in the dog house and would like to find my way back to the comfort of my wife’s loving arms sooner rather than later.
I never realized that you are part of My First Wife’s family. They’re a bunch of Italian women. What does that tell you? To top it off, they grew up in the South. And to top that, they each have three brothers who want to talk, too. Anyway, all that you said here can be said at my house.
Oh, I think I know some people like that. Not only stock up on Excedrin, but maybe buy stock in Excedrin? Lol!
Who cares about the noise. What fun you must have!
Sounds like when my wife, my daughter-in-law and my granddaughters are all in the same room. Sometimes they ask “why I am so quiet”…. yeh… like I had a choice? ~ jb///
Sounds fun! I wish I had more sisters.