Filmbuff – I agree – it’s exhausting. People misunderstand my tone, and I misunderstand theirs. I just find myself trying to avoid having any tone at all, and ignoring other people’s tone… I don’t mean to give up like that, but it’s a work-around until I can figure out what the heck is going on.
I know this lady at work who is a genious with these kinds of things. Someone will say the most ridiculous thing, and she will say something so gracious and genuine back to them – and truthful as well. I came to her with tears in my eyes saying – how do you do it???
She just said – well I’m 20 years older than you, so I guess it just takes that long to learn how to do that. I didn’t want to tell her – I don’t know if I can learn that in 100 years 
But I’m willing to try… sigh…
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