I had really high hopes when I found out there was a new version of the Newlywed Game currently on TV. We had just gotten married and I thought for sure that we would be a great couple to have on the show.
We'd be spectacularily argumentative and alternately sweet. It would be a triumph of bi-polar couple disorder to rival anything on daytime TV. But it was not to be. I enthusiastically filled out an application, supplied them with pictures, and never heard back. Drat.
Guess it's on to my backup plans--either Mantracker or the Amazing Race. I think I could do either of those shows fairly well. And our constant bickering and sniping at each other would definitely fit the bill that most reality shows look for (constant drama is entertaining). Plus I think we "Dolls" are made for TV! We're diamonds in the rough, truly. Or maybe just rough diamonds.
The following story really illustrates just how much we really do love arguing (and probably says something about our characters as people).
A few years ago I went to the Big B's parents' house to chat and hang out for a bit like he typically does after work each day (the Big B is a HUGE momma's boy, but that's for another time). We were chatting and talking loudly with the TV show COPS on in the background. The Big B had a particularily stressful day and was hoping to unwind.
Once again, I can't say for certain exactly what set this argument off, but it was definitely something to do with COPS. Probably something involving guns or law enforcement. Either topic is hot-button for my father-in-law. All four of us began to heatedly argue for the next hour or so. Sometimes one or more of us would gang up against another, but any alliances were shortlived as we shifted about in our reasoning, going off on tangents and side arguments as warranted by whatever someone else was saying. The volume got louder and louder and more empassioned with every passing minute.
Ever hear of that technique to get people to calm down and lower their voice by talking softer yourself? Completely ineffectual in the Doll household. Instead, we shoot for decibel levels just shy of rock concerts, jet airplanes, and volcanic eruptions.
Finally, it was over, almost magically, as if we all decided to call a truce at the same time. In the silence, I look over at the Big B to see him grinning widely and looking happy and relaxed. He gives a big sigh and says, "That was nice. I feel so much better now."
Most sane people would be even more stressed out by a hour-long four-way argument that rattled the windowpanes. Even argumentative people would have heightened blood-pressure after a scene like that (I know I did!). But not the Big B.
Oh no.
For him and his crazy-logic world, that was the most relaxing thing he could have done to detox himself from the stresses of his workday. And he indulges in this stress-relieving therapy daily.
He's just lucky that I am a girl who can hold her own in arguments and came from a loud family of her own.
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