I was not kidding. I was/am not reframing and the only hook I feel to be on is my wishing you didn't appear, to me, to hurt unnecessarily. I cannot do a whole lot about that because what you think, feel, and believe is about you and I don't have any jurisdiction there.

I am a very concrete/literal person. "I would use. . ." means, to me, "I would use. . ." I can/will certainly apologize if you feel I hijacked your thread with my stories and feelings about my lack of self-esteem but that's about all I can see to do here?