Yay. Yayyy. Yay!

I have come to a realization (well not a realization but a confirmed previous finding) that cyberspace is either the best piece of technology or the root of all evil. The root of all, if not most, drama.  It hit me yesterday on Facebook just how frustrating typing thoughts and emotions can be. I posted a status and got a teasing comment back on it. Since I knew she was teasing I commented BACK in the same manner. No big deal. But certain busybodies (no, not Matt and not the person who originally commented on my post) take it upon themselves to read into everything I say and do and felt they needed to text me to tell me how rude I am on Facebook. How so-and-so was teasing me and I need to stop snapping back at her and being so sensitive.. and FURTHERMORE how they have "noticed" I snap at others as well.

Well, this just frustrated the hell out of me. This person was not even a part of that interaction. How is it they saw one person teasing and I was "being mean and snappish". And I have never snapped at ANYONE online! I don't like confrontation and if there is going to be any I would rather face to face so there IS no miscommunication.  I thought about this more in the shower. I tend to do a lot of my deep thinking in the shower. And what kept popping in my mind was: To Interpret.  Everything that is said, typed, texted, etc is to be interpreted. It's especially hard to get a point across when you can't put a facial expression to it (which is why I flood my words with exclamation marks and smiley faces, or sad faces, whatever suits the mood of my words).  I didn't realize I needed to add a tongue-sticking-out smiley face to let EVERYONE ELSE know I was teasing.  I always like to tease Matt on his comments to my statuses..it's always "Yay". Just "yay". LoL We were talking last night and we brought this subject up..I ask him,"how are you saying it in your head when you type that?" and he's like " Yayyy so exciting!!". So I tell him he should add 3 y's or at least an exclamation point to let me know that's he's really excited versus mumbling 'yay'. See what I mean?

Interpretation means that whatever is you see, read, etc has many paths you can take with it. And honestly, I think it's in the eye of the reader on how they see it. If someone has eaten a bunch of sour grapes that day, then most likely they are going to misread something in a negative way. Someone in a great mood with an optimistic outlook can read that exact same thing, but see it in a completely different way.
So, I'm realizing what bothered me most about that text to me was that this certain person chose to read one comment as an innocent tease and read mine as mean. Does this person not think very highly of me? Are they looking at me to act a certain way? Why is it I'M the bad guy?  I shake my head in confusion because I honestly don't know what else I can do! This isn't the first time this person chose to see me in a certain light. And seeing as they are permanently in my life I cannot ignore them forever. And I really don't want to have this talk AGAIN. It's exhausting and it's maddening!