Thursday, July 17, 2008

Dinner and Small Talk . . .

Dave and I just got back from dinner at Tangier - we should have just stayed at my house and cooked the food Dave bought at Giant Eagle because it would have tasted MUCH better. Really, shouldn't an $80 dinner plus a $20 tip taste a little better than the 'All you can eat dinner buffet' at the Golden Corral?? But that is not the reason for this post.

While we waited for the Chef (I use the term lightly) from Tangier to return from Aldi's grocery store with our steak, shrimp, crab cake and Grouper and prepare it for our dining pleasure, I recapped the events of my work day. I attended a class called "Managing Interpersonal Relationships" or MIR at work and tried to share my new knowledge with Dave by explaining that I fall into the Amiable personality quadrant while he falls under the Driver or Expressive quadrant. Amiables, I try to explain, have a need to tell a story, and don't like to be rushed, bullied or pressured. We don't like unreasonable deadlines and expectations but we are great team builders, excellent coaches and basically just want to make the workplace a fun and comfortable environment.

I'm in the middle of this explanation when the Expressive in Dave comes out. Expressives are also people oriented, like to have fun, are achievement oriented and risk takers. They think and talk fast and want EVERYONE around them to do the same, as they don't have the attention span for lots of details or stories. Which is when Dave says to me "That's exactly me, I want a conversation without all the bullshit, just give me a verb and a noun, that's all I want."

So, being the Amiable that I am I responded with:




"Fuck you."

What can I say? I've got a little expressive in me and wanted to over achieve - so I gave him a verb and a PRO-noun.