T.A. Style

Miscommunication. It happens. Especially in our frantic, crazed world full of different ways to talk to the people we know. In one day alone I had conversations with my brother in four different ways: on the phone, through texting, via email, and oh, I almost forgot: in person. I almost don't even think about that last one sometimes, but I definitely would have benefited from a face-to-face conversation yesterday.
It was a traumatizing day for me. I was on the phone with one of my best friends from home and she was talking about a doctor's appointment she had had earlier that day. Over the many years I have known her she has had more than her fair share of health problems: her back, her knee, her wrist, and even a slight heart condition that she found about last year. So when she said she went to the doctor I had no idea which of those things it could be. I figured she had probably told me earlier, but I was walking home from school, so I was a little distracted. She'd most likely mention which ailment it was later in our conversation, so I decided not to ask. I pride myself on being a good listener and I didn't want to taint my reputation.

"Kylie," she said, "The doctor said that he can't really see what's going on, but the fact that it's been bothering me for so long isn't good. So he's going to do (at this point there was a lot of static)-ory surgery."

Oh my gosh, I thought. Did she just say coronary?? That is NOT good, she's so young!
"Are you ok?" I asked her. "This must have been the worst afternoon of your life."

"Not really," she said. "I don't really think it's that big of a deal."

"WHAT are you talking about?? It's a HUGE deal. How many people can say that they've had heart surgery at the age of 21?"

Now she was the one to explode. "WHAT?? Heart surgery? Kylie. Exploratory surgery. On my knee. I don't even know what you're talking about."

I didn't say anything. How could I when I was laughing so hard? When I finally got ahold of myself I told her, "Next time you're having any sort of knife cutting into you let me know in person. This conversation almost gave ME a heart attack!"