All Talked Out

"How's your day?" my bro asked.

"Ok lah," I mumbled in between chews of my dinner.

That has been the extent of our conversation lately.

But yesterday, he prodded on in a very nice manner.

"You don't seem to talk much these days at home," he went on.

"Yeah lor," I continued with my two-syllable replies.

Suddenly I looked up from my dinner plate and we grinned at each other.

"Hey, do you think this is what happens to couples who have been married for years?" I asked him.

Then we looked at the hall next to the dining room where our parents were engaged in an animated conversation. They've just returned from an 8-day holiday in Korea. 24 hours together for 8 days. Almost 24 hours together every single day of their lives since retirement. And they still have loads to yak about.

"Nah," I said, negating my earlier thoughts. "That doesn't happen to everyone."

And proceeded to share the stuff that I have been struggling with lately.

As I shared, I became aware of the reason why I feel "all talked out" every time I come home from work. I have another assistant now - she's temporarily stationed in my department before she is permanently placed in Admin, because of her qualifications in IT. Being a chatty and curious creature (and also very fresh from university), most of my work day is spent coaching and talking with her.

I heard that women have a quota of about 25,000 words a day. I must have used that and beyond since my chirpy assistant came. Which explains why I don't see the need to talk when I return home after a long day at work.

The strange thing is, blogging and online communications doesn't seem to be affected. Not sure what the quota is before I'm officially "all blogged out".

Heh